The Questlove Show - QLS Classic: The Jacksons

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Five years ago, in mid 2021, Questlove Supreme sat down with three members of The Jacksons, THE American Music Dynasty. In the spirit of Black Music Month, Ahmir's quote: "we would be pressed to find ...one person on this earth who has not been affected by their legacy" echoes powerfully. Jackie, Marlon, and the since-passed Tito discussed their 50-year musical legacy, the remastering of their classic albums, and their transition from Motown to Epic Records on QLS. The two-hour episode was recorded on Zoom, but the conversation is preserved as an evergreen look into the musical family that continues to shape music and culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:20 It's not just a game. It's your culture. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American football on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey
Starting point is 00:00:54 toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotfi is presented by CVS. My first guest is Terence Houghton, Shakira, Luke, and Yerrin. Have surprises.
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Starting point is 00:02:06 I'm Javier El Chichariot-R-Nand-es and listen to Learning to Be Human on I-Hard Radio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Munga Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talk to scientists, biopunks, kermudgens, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble.
Starting point is 00:02:36 along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever,
Starting point is 00:02:45 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. What up, what up people? June is here, and that means it's Black Music Month. And at Quest Love Supreme, now the Quest Love Show, we've taken this month seriously. It's our chance to celebrate black music,
Starting point is 00:03:10 documented history and recognize the impact it continues to have on our culture around the world. Throughout June, we'll be bringing you an episode every day. My team and I have gone back through the archives and pulled together conversation, stories, and moments that help tell a bigger story about black music and the people who shaped them. We also got four brand new Quest Love Show episodes coming your way, spotlighting artists, thinkers, innovators, cultural shifters, revolutionaries, from across the spectrum of black music, past, present, and future. Thanks for spending your part of June with us.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Happy Black Music Month. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Questlove Supreme. I'm your host, Questlo. We have Team Supreme with us. We have Unpaid Bill. Here I am. There you are.
Starting point is 00:04:13 How are you doing? Sugar Steve in the house. How you doing? Hi, Amir. Hi, Jackson. Brother. Hello. All right.
Starting point is 00:04:21 What's up, Sugar Steve? Yes, sir. We have, uh, what's up? Fon Tigolo. Yeah, man, I'm busting down a, uh, a salad and, uh, and a crab cake. What's your salmon cake? I'm sorry. It's, you know, I'm watching, trying to watch my figure these days.
Starting point is 00:04:35 And I've been bump in trial for all day. I've said to let you know. I, I've been giving it up. I was in the, I had it on blast before. I've been waiting on this in a day, bro. Like, like, wow. And finally, we have, uh, Laia, the, the, the, the, the first lady of the show. How are you right now?
Starting point is 00:04:51 Can you feel it? I don't care. We got to pay for it. Can you feel it? Yes. Yeah, we might have to pay for that. Can you feel it? I'm just that.
Starting point is 00:04:59 Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I will just say that we're given the honor right now of having a conversation with an American, I guess I can say an American institution. Yep. Dynasty. Yes, an American dynasty for over damn near six decades. our guests have blazed a trail of hip records of sold out concerts of Disney and
Starting point is 00:05:26 choreography of ground baking videos basically I'll be pressed to find one human being on earth who is not in one way, shape, or form been affected by their legacy and it's apropos that they're on the show now their entire Sony catalog
Starting point is 00:05:41 has just caught up with their Motown catalog and that their self-titled 76 album 77's going places and Destiny from 78 have finally, after all these decades, gotten the remastered treatment, finally on a stream platform.
Starting point is 00:05:59 And, you know, basically words I'd never thought I'd say in this lifetime, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Questlove Supreme, the Jackson's. Yes. What's up, Quest? How are you doing, how are you doing, guys? And we're good. So, thank you.
Starting point is 00:06:16 All right. So, you know, slight disclosure. We've cheated already by talking to Tito. Actually, what? Our second episode, correct? Yeah. Since we've been the I-Heart. Right.
Starting point is 00:06:29 Our second episode. So this might be rerun city, but I figured I'd figure out creative ways to ask these questions. I guess my first question off the bat is, if one says 2,300 Jackson Street, what is your first immediate memory that comes to mine automatically? Well, this is Marlon, so I'm going to jump in first since I'm the youngest out of the three here. Okay. You should be the last one.
Starting point is 00:06:59 No, brother. Not a need, Dave. That house on 2300 Jackson Street, that house on 2300 Jackson Street, our house in Gary, Indiana, first thing that pops in mind to me, that. That huge house when I was young and when I go back to visit that little house that we all grew up in and we all practiced. That's where we got our start from, from that house on the corner of 2,300 Jackson Street. So you're saying that as a youngster, you thought that that was an average-sized house. No, that was a mansion when we were young.
Starting point is 00:07:41 Wow, wow. Yes, it sure was. I mean, we did everything in that house, played hide and seek and rehearse. We put the, pull the furniture back and my father would rehearse us in the living room. It was only a two-bedroom house with 11 people, but we managed to make it work. Marlon's garage is bigger than that house right now. Really? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:07 Jackie, what are your memories of 2300 Jackson Street? Well, like Marlon said, you know, it's a place where we all grew up in the house and a lot of fun memories there with loving parents and we love each other. We were bonded together. We had a two-bedroom house and I remember, you know, in our bedroom we had like bump beds that were stacked up together, like five beds. Like a three stooges. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:33 Yeah. And my sisters, my sisters, they all slept in the living room. There was a couch bed that let out. And my mother and father slept in the other bedroom. But there was a lot of love, a lot of. rehearsing in that house. We wanted together. And there's a lot of small concerts in that house because we had audience people coming
Starting point is 00:08:50 from the neighborhood and speaking in the windows watching us rehearse every single day. And we and that was pretty much our audience. And that's a lot of fun memories. It was just an open door policy like one could just. Yeah, just come up to the window. Oh, just come to the window, not walk inside the house. No, no, you can walk inside because there's no, no. You can do that.
Starting point is 00:09:12 They will fight to get the best. position in the window to look. You see what we were doing. Yeah. Usually, and they're watching these rehearsals, then how long would these rehearsals last for? A couple hours. Yeah. Two hours at least.
Starting point is 00:09:30 Sometimes three, you know, so we get it right. We take a break and take a 15-minute break and go back at it, you know? Okay. Because most of the time we had rehearsals prior to doing the gig, because we would gig on the weekday. after school. We rehearsed and go to that gig about 7 o'clock in the evening in Chicago or what have you.
Starting point is 00:09:53 Oh. Then be back, get back home somewhere around 1 or 2 in the morning, get up and go to school, which I did not mind because when we played shows in Chicago, people would throw money on stage. And so Michael and I, you know, we're doing splits left and right and we get
Starting point is 00:10:10 to keep the money. Yeah. So when I went to school, We used to stop at the store and get a pocket full of candy didn't go to class. So Michael and I, we always had money. You all that balling in the second grade. Okay. A dollar 50 cents.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Wait, I wanted to know. But you got five for a penny, Tito. You got five for a penny back in those days. Okay. I know that you guys were an official five, some, what, 65? but back when the group was just a trio, back when it was just Jackie Tito and Jermaine, I believe. What was the arrangement of the group then before Marlin and Michael came along? Well, we were just basically a bedroom group.
Starting point is 00:11:00 We hadn't done anything out in the public or anything like that. We were just three brothers trying to be the Isley brothers or temptation. Trying to figure it out. Trying to figure it out. Yeah, trying to figure it out. How did temptation sound like this or the miracles or whoever? We were just putting it, you know, getting it together. But in a trio situation, who was the lead person?
Starting point is 00:11:26 Who was the in that particular situation? But that time, Germain was singing a lot of lead. But we were all singing at that time, too. But then later on, then Michael and Marlon joined. And Michael came in playing. you know, the Quaker oatmeal boxes. Yeah. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:11:45 He called him to playing the bongos on that, Michael did. And he has someone, him and Marley has so much dancing ability and energy. So we decided, hey, man, we got to put them in the group, you know. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that's how that started, you know. And so we had them in the group. And then we started doing all these talent shows, you know, all these talent shows in time from my high school.
Starting point is 00:12:08 We had a lot of talent shows going on. We were joining these talent shows rehearsing for the talent shows, and we would win these talent shows all over the regional part of the state, you know, of Indiana. We go to Michigan, different places like that, and this went on these talent shows. And on these shows, there were Denise Williams, Earthland and the Fire was on some of these shows, and, you know, these talent shows like that, you know.
Starting point is 00:12:34 I was going to say, yeah, Wanda Hutchinson of the emotions. Yeah. And Sheila, I believe, as well, told us that they would often run into you guys doing kind of the circuit. Yeah. Yeah, we did. We did what they called the chilling circuit. And actually, not only them, the OJs, it was the Shalites and us. And like you said, the emotions.
Starting point is 00:13:00 And we used to do a place in Chicago called the High Chapparel. And Maurice White was with another band, and they would play. It was a drummer. Maurice was the drummer. Kevok Simmons was the name of that band. Oh, it was, Tito? Yes, Kibok Simmons. And when we did do those places, one time I remember,
Starting point is 00:13:20 so a pig meet Markham was the main act, and they would have us on. You come to judge. Yeah. And when we did the Apollo, you know, amateur stuff, you had Moms Mabley or Edda James were the acts that came in, or Sam and Dave were the headliners.
Starting point is 00:13:39 and came on amateur night and did our thing and people enjoyed us. How many shows we used to do, Marlon, at the parlor? What, seven shows a night or something like that? Six or seven shows a day. Yeah, at the barlow. Really? Yeah. So you would do amateur night each time around, or was it at some point where you guys
Starting point is 00:13:56 were sort of out of amateur night and just a featured act? It was, and then we would do the talent shows and the five stair steps. We had a rivalry, I guess, between us and the five stair steps. And Michael would cry. Michael would cry his butt off this. You know, sometime before that came on before us. You know, the crowd started throwing eggs out of them and stuff like that because they were there. And Michael would cry because he forget they're going to do the same thing to him.
Starting point is 00:14:22 So we were tired of comments and Mike, just do your thing. Everything's going to be okay. You know, he would cry like a baby because he didn't want them throwing eggs on them on stage. And grabbing a hook and hooking him off stage. That's what they did. That's what they did by the day. They're a man. Samman.
Starting point is 00:14:37 Sam's. I was going to say, I know that, well, of course, everyone knows the legend of the Apollo, but for those other spots that were in the Chitlin Circuit, like either the Regent or the uptown in Philly or the Fox in Detroit, was it also the same way, like if you were new, you were someone booing you off the stage or anything, or was that just the Apollo? Like, could you relax if you were at Chicago or any other place? It was more so as Paula, but they'll boo you.
Starting point is 00:15:09 If you're not good at Regal Theater and wherever, uptown, they're going to boo you. You know, but, but, uh, the people don't play, you know? But did that ever happen? Did that ever happen to the Jackson's though? No, no, no. We were lucky. Yeah. Yeah, we never got the boo.
Starting point is 00:15:29 Yeah. So, uh, we were scared of the boo. So we did the best that we could do. I see. You can stay away from that boot. Wait, Tito. Yes, Tito, the world kind of knows
Starting point is 00:15:40 the story of you discovering your father's guitar. But I always wanted to know how was Jermaine able to learn the bass? Was it a similar situation? Like, who taught him how to play the bass? Well, I gave
Starting point is 00:15:57 Jermaine bass guitar lessons on the bass, bass, bass notes on the guitar, I should say, because when my father bought the second guitar, he started playing the guitar that I was sneaking from my father. And I was showing, you know, the little things on the on the on the guitar. But it was based up. So he was playing bass on the guitar.
Starting point is 00:16:20 Because as you know, the first four strings, the first four strings, right? Yes, same, same thing. Yeah. And then what he did, he started studying James James James Mason of Motown because we listened to the Motown songs. And he started studying James James James. He used to play just like him, Jermaine. And a young kid, I mean, he had it down, you know, singing and playing at the same time. Okay.
Starting point is 00:16:44 So before you guys went to Motown, you were on Steeltown. What was the story of Steeltown? Like, who owned the label? How did you guys wind up recording a single for them? Well, Stiltown was just a local record company in Garrianda. We really didn't, I guess, we were so young. We didn't know a lot. My father is basically who took us and was controlling all the activities of his little boys at that time.
Starting point is 00:17:16 We were really, really young. I remember seeing a picture of the band recording the song, I'm a big boy now. We were all quite small, little kids, you know. And it just had one take, and that was it. Gordon teeth. Right. The budget wasn't big. It was nothing.
Starting point is 00:17:38 You know, we could have recorded this song in our living room. Oh, in and out. Yeah. Yeah. In and out. Like you said, you were so young. Like, how did you look at all the rehearsals and all the shows and all the, and all the things you were doing?
Starting point is 00:17:52 Did you think it was the most fun thing you could do? I mean, I think it is. But at the time, did you think that what we had was the most fun? When they say Keepers of the dream, we really had dreams. We all wanted to be like Jackie Wilson and James Brown and the temps. We wanted to be entertainer, stars. We wanted to go to Holly, California, or wherever the stars lived. It was fun, too.
Starting point is 00:18:26 That's the main thing. We had a lot of fun along the journey. But we never realized what a market. Mark was making in the world when we were younger because we were constantly busy and we would go to different parts of the world and get back to school. And we can tell the class everything about the place. But don't get us wrong. There were times that we didn't want to rehearse. Trust me, we'd rather be outside playing.
Starting point is 00:18:55 And the kids used to laugh at us sometime and tell us, you're not going to get anywhere. and, you know, with the rehearsing. But my father, you know, made sure that we rehearsed before we did anything rehearsed. We used to take breaks sometime and watch Batman or the Green Hornet, then back to rehearsal. Yeah, and you watched the Three Stooges. That's what you did.
Starting point is 00:19:13 Oh, yeah, we watched them dog on these three studs. Yes, we did. Three stoozes. Is you play any sports in school? Yeah, we played a lot of basketball, baseball, because the baseball field was right behind our house. And if we weren't doing music, we were playing baseball most of the time. That's what we did.
Starting point is 00:19:33 Or cricket. Or cricket in the alley. Yes, cricket. Wait, black people play cricket? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, we played ghetto cricket, but we played it. Skelly. Describe it, Marlins.
Starting point is 00:19:50 Tell me how the game goes wrong. We used to set up like three cans on the ground at each end, and we had a stick. We all had sticks to bat. Either you throw at the can or you roll it and you hit the ball and you go back and forth, counting and whoever got to a certain point,
Starting point is 00:20:09 a certain number, won the game. And it gave you skills because Jackie and Jermaine and Tien, they used to try to see if they can hit it all the way to the other field over the fence. And they did. And you can imagine someone running
Starting point is 00:20:23 trying to get that ball and throw it back. And if you stick is up and they knock down your cans is the other teams turn to come up and take a bat. Wow. Cricket by Marlon Jackson. That's what we did.
Starting point is 00:20:35 Okay. Outside of moving cylinder blocks from one end of the yard to the other end of the yard, a chore that my father gave us. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's not a sport, actually. Yeah, ghetto cricket.
Starting point is 00:20:50 That's exactly what it's called ghetto cricket. It should be called cockroach. No. Well, when we saw that on the American Dream, I guess Jackie had to keep moving the bricks. What was that? Like, just something to keep you occupied for an hour or so? Keep us occupied. Keep us from the gangs being in the streets.
Starting point is 00:21:13 And it took all day. It took all day. It took all day. And Michael and I couldn't pick up one. So the two of us carried one. And, yeah, he would make us, when I get home from work, I want to see those bricks from that end of the yard to over at that other end of the yard. Wow.
Starting point is 00:21:32 Okay, so explain to me the environment that was Gary, Indiana, in the mid-60s. Like, what is your father trying to keep you from? What is outside of 2300 Jackson Street? Well, there were gangs then lurking to recruit new young members, and I guess my father felt that my sons would not be a member of those gangs. So he kept us occupied. And we did go out and play sometime in the streets, hide and seek or whatever. But majority of the times, we were working, moving those bricks around or rehearsing.
Starting point is 00:22:10 But there were gangs sometime. And Jackie and Tito can elaborate on this more because I was still in elementary school. Go and Tito do anything. No, no, there was a lot of gangs around, Gary. There was, they were shooting, you can be on your porch at night because the ladies of the neighborhood, meaning the mothers, we get together and, you know, they, mosquitoes are bad, so they have a garbage can fire going and join the smoke. And all of a sudden you start hearing, pop, car speeding down the street, and people started running and ducking. So there was a lot of gang activity around. But the gangs never did mess with us.
Starting point is 00:22:54 They always protected us when we walked through the games. They were. And I was happy for that. You guys. Yeah. They supported us. We're making some positive noise, I guess. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:23:06 Oh, okay. All right. That's new. Were you guys first generation, Gary, Indiana? Or were your parents from there as well? I don't remember. No. No, no.
Starting point is 00:23:15 No, my parents aren't from there. But we're first generation from Gary. Yeah. Okay. So where were your parents from? I'm just curious. I never... My mother's from Arkansas.
Starting point is 00:23:27 No, my father's from Arkansas. My mother's from Alabama. What city? She's a Bama girl. Do you know the city, though? I think it's Hartsboro. Damn it. Okay, I thought it was Mobile.
Starting point is 00:23:41 Yeah, just check it. Either way, her childhood wasn't so sweet. My father's from Ler Ross. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, wow. Little about, I read once that your mom, she was like a country Western singer.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Does she use the same country? Yeah, what happened was with that, you know, at that time, you know, our television broke and we didn't have money to get it fixed, you know, so we were seeing, she was the avid country Western fans. She loved country Western music. Charlie Pride. Yeah, yeah, yeah, different people.
Starting point is 00:24:16 And we was harmonized with her singing with her, you know, And because no television, we sing with her. She came to my father one day. They said, Joe, your boys can really see. They can't harmonize. He said, Kate, they can't. You said, Joe. Your boys can't sing, Keith.
Starting point is 00:24:32 So she said, Joe, they really can sing. So he is, so she, you know, we sung for him. And he got all excited. That's when he started buying into, going out buying instruments for us, all the instruments. So when you guys were kids, was he gigging at all? or was that part of his life done with? Because I know that he did a few.
Starting point is 00:24:53 When he had a little local band called the Falcons, he had a band himself. And he had they would come over to the house and play with my uncle. His brother played guitar and he played guitar. And we used to watch them play all the time. Just love them just watched them this gig. And to us, they were like big professionals. And we watched them all the time.
Starting point is 00:25:11 And they would play at the house. It was great watching them play. And that's how we learned about music. And just listen to all the Motown songs on the radio. stuff like that. And it's lying the family stone. Yeah, it's lying everybody. Yeah, he sure did.
Starting point is 00:25:24 It was amazing. So, Marlon, I know that you brought it up earlier, but I always heard about the legend of Mr. Lucky's, which I guess was sort of like your home spot, but what was Mr. Lucky's? Would that have been a strip club today or like? No, it wasn't a strip club. It was a little nightclub. That one was in Guarneyana.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Yeah. In Gary, Indiana. And they, they pay. paid us, we got paid $8 for our first show. And Mr. Lucky's, that was the first gig that we got paid. And we were so happy about it. I mean, but $8 back in those days take you a long way. And those were the shows of Michael and Marlon would,
Starting point is 00:26:05 they would throw money on the floor and they would do the splits and grab the money. And Marlon and Tito and I and Jermain would be in a, said, oh, they're getting all the money. We weren't getting on there. You know, we've, we've heard different accounts, but I've never heard it from you guys verbatim. I mean, I've talked to Gladys Knight, and she told me she was the one. And then Tommy Chong of Chi Chi Chang says that, you know, Bobby, Bobby in the Vancouver's. I didn't know that he wrote, because you guys did a cover of it.
Starting point is 00:26:43 I didn't know that he wrote, does your, does your mama know about me? I didn't know that. Damn, Cheech and Chong, like Motown or Tommy Shang Motown Legends. So what is the real story? I know the angle, but who literally made it happen? Yes, I'm going to introduce you to this person. That leads to Barry Gordon. Okay, I'm going to set the record straight.
Starting point is 00:27:05 I'm going to set the record. Well, we played a concert in Gary, Indiana. Mm-hmm. And for our mayor, Richard Gordon-Hatchard, who's no longer with us. He was in there at the time. And so he was campaigning at the time. So Gladys Knight was his guest there. And we happened to play the same show.
Starting point is 00:27:28 So she happened. She saw us on the concert. She went back to Barry Gordy. He told Barry Gordy. There's some guys in Indiana. That's incredible. You've got to sign these kids. It was Gladys who discovered us first.
Starting point is 00:27:39 And Bobby Taylor did this show the next year. He saw us to say, he went back to Barry Gordy and said the same exact thing with both of those people. But Diana Ross was his biggest artist. She's the one who brought us out because he was his biggest star. So Barry used Dana Ross to introduce us to the world. Marketing. Presenting.
Starting point is 00:27:57 But it was Gladys Knight and Bobby Taylor was the ones who discovered us. That's true. All right. True story. They're true. Moving to Los Angeles from Gary, Indiana. How much of a fish out of water situation was that for you guys as far as, watching the world that you see on television, which is how I would tell you.
Starting point is 00:28:20 Because I used to watch all the football games, all the football games. We got Chicago Bears. We got Cleveland Browns. It was snowing outside, freeze. And then they were show, in an afternoon game, they were show San Diego Chargers, so all the same just Rams, right? So I'm watching TV. I'm in the snow, freezing my butt off.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And I'm watching TV saying all these people, they show the palm trees and show the people in the stands, having a great time. I said, that's where I want to go. I want to go to Los Angeles. I don't know how I'm going to get there, but that's where I'm going to go. That's where I want to live. That's what I said to myself.
Starting point is 00:28:54 I don't know how I was going to get there. And some kind of way, we were silent with Motown, and Very God decided to move his office over to Los Angeles because he wants to get into the film business. Right. You know? So he moved his whole entire office from Detroit. He still had office.
Starting point is 00:29:13 He still had office in Detroit. But then moved its operation to Los Angeles, California, and he brought us over there with it. Was there ever talk of you guys moving to Detroit first to be? Matter of fact, we did go to Detroit. It was in Detroit recording our music first, and then we went on to. How long were we in Detroit? About a year, two years, guys, recording? About a year?
Starting point is 00:29:36 We signed with Motown in 1968. We told everybody, and people didn't believe it. Because we didn't have any music out. It took over a year before we even got in the studio. Yeah, longer than that, Marlon. Oh, okay. So some of that first album was recorded at the Hitsville studio? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:55 Oh, yeah. A lot of it. Yeah. A lot of it. The temps and all of them would come around. We would see all those cats. All those people would come around and give us all kind of support. And they were saying hello to us.
Starting point is 00:30:10 And Jermaine was trying to hit on Barry Gordy's daughter at the time. Jermaine's, you know. You succeeded. Okay. Yes. Yes. What, one question I had, if I'm, Jackie, you're the oldest, you may have the best memory of it.
Starting point is 00:30:24 I was always curious to know about the corporation, Freddie Parenthood, Larry Mazzel. Do you have any of working with those guys? Deke Richards. Yeah. Hans-Maisal. Yeah. Yeah. They had just got out.
Starting point is 00:30:37 They had just got out of college. Just from Howard University, just graduate from Howard University. They were incredible, they were incredible musicians songwriters, and Barry Gordy put them with us. We used to laugh at Freddie Parenthood and Fons Mazzel because we were going to the studio, we see them, and they're on a little mophead scooter, two of them, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:06 You're right, Marley, you're right. I remember. I love to do you. You remember that? Yeah, I remember that. And we passed them up on the street, and they were coming to the studio, but they had to hit.
Starting point is 00:31:20 They sure did. They were incredible. A lot of our, especially from a hip-hop perspective, I mean, I don't think a lot of people, our contemporaries, even equate that, you know, the Mazzell brothers,
Starting point is 00:31:36 their 70s catalog, and all the stuff that they did on Blue Note records. Right. You know, with Donald Bird and even the stuff they did with like a taste of honey and all that stuff. Like, I don't think they even equated. These are the same guys that also wrote, I want you back. I want you back in all those things. The love you save and all that.
Starting point is 00:31:53 Oh, yeah, they were incredible. And they don't even know that their nephew was Jamaster J from Run DMC. They never put two and two together with that. But, yeah. So, yeah, I was going to say when you first get to Motown, What is the basic work operation as far as you guys learning songs? Let me bag it up for you. I think you'll find this interesting.
Starting point is 00:32:22 From Gary, Indiana, we went to Detroit to audition for Barry Coy. Right? And so we did a lot of Motown songs. And so Barry had this huge house, had a golf course. in the backyard and the back nine, head indoor swimming pool. You go downstairs further in the alley. All the gangs.
Starting point is 00:32:46 And so we get ready to Michael and I playing in the pool, having a great time. Jackie walking around biting his nails, damn they ate up his fingers because he was so nervous. And he used to get after Michael and I. This is serious, guys. This is our chairs. Y'all fooling around playing with all the games and stuff.
Starting point is 00:33:03 Get serious. I mean, we were kids. And all of a sudden, we get ready to do our show. Well, no, he was, all of us, we back, all of our equipment was set up around the pool. Yeah, yeah, had indoors swimming. We had, wow. Jackie, let me back up because morning us, we had already auditioned for Motown the day before. Barry decided, yeah, I want to sign these kids.
Starting point is 00:33:28 So he acts, he said tomorrow's Dinah Ross's birthday. Oh. I'm having a party for her at my house. And I want you guys to perform. And so we're around the pool At this party, tell them who was at the party, Mara. We're around the pool. And we do a lot of more times.
Starting point is 00:33:47 And all of a sudden, I see Marvin Gaye come through the door. The temps, the temps walked through the door. Then Donna Ross come in. Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robertson. The four tops come through the door. And all the song, we've got to sing their songs, because that's all the songs we knew. I saw all the big hits on the radio.
Starting point is 00:34:08 We didn't have any new original material. So we're singing all these Motown songs in front of their face. David Ruffin come in. Wow. You know. And this is the first time you're meeting them. No pressure. No.
Starting point is 00:34:20 Yeah. Yeah. First time. And this is their first time seeing us. And we're doing their stuff. So. I assume that the show went well because you're here right now talking about it. Yes.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Trial by fire. How much? Yeah. older were guys like Marvin Gay and Smokey than you at that time. Oh, they had about 15, 10 and 15 years of us. Yes. So they were like. Well, Stevie was kind of a peer, right?
Starting point is 00:34:48 Yeah, well, yeah. I think, Jackie, you were like 15 or 16 at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I heard your sister mentioned that Stevie actually might be related to you guys. Is that true? Yes, true.
Starting point is 00:35:02 On my mom's side. He's on my mom's side. He is. when did you all find this out? A lot of people don't know that. Like first cousin, second, third. You got to ask my mom, but all that. This is, to me, this is funny because we were somewhere,
Starting point is 00:35:19 and Stevie tells them, and I was talking with Stevie, this is at my father's funeral. And then all the way he told, he said, Amelia, give them all in my numbers since we cuss. Does he call four in the morning as well? He's world famous for that. His 4 a.m. calls. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:44 We've, you know, we've been blessed. We had some great times, you know. It's what you do with that time and how you treat it. And we've had some great times. Okay.
Starting point is 00:35:54 I'm sorry. I got to follow up on this. So did you and Steve, did you guys and Stevie want to know you were cousins back then? Or did this come up recently? No, we did not know. In fact, Stevie did a couple of songs on us during the Motown days.
Starting point is 00:36:08 And we didn't know that we were cousins. And those songs that Stevie did on us, they were never released, you know. And so I think Butterfell, no. Buttercup. Buttercup. I haven't done. Buttercup. Not that you have nothing, nothing song.
Starting point is 00:36:24 That's one of questions talking about. Well, I know Jermaine took, you're supposed to keep your love for me. Yeah. Yeah. From the original tracks. Was there any other besides Butter Club? As well more than I know, of course. A buttercup, you're supposed to keep your love for me.
Starting point is 00:36:40 I think there was one or two more other ones. I forgot. Man, we did so many songs. Motown got so many songs that we can't. When I hear stuff, we did that? Right. We lived in the studio. That's what I want to get to.
Starting point is 00:36:53 You guys, I've seen at least the Motown vaults. I've seen them and seen the catalogs. And to me, it's staggering. How big is it a mere kill people, please? You know, it was over 200 songs. But the thing is, like, they're 200 completed songs. And half the stuff didn't see the light of day. So, like, what is, can you walk me through how you guys get, like, do you have, like, mere seconds to learn it?
Starting point is 00:37:24 Do you at least get a work tape at night before to figure out your arrangements? No. What's the process of that? We walk to, we go in the studio. They put the song up to school. After school, Jack? We go out to school. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:37:37 There's a studio, recording the studio, right? And the recording studio was right around the corner, right on Fairfax. And half the kids at the school never knew that we were going to the recording studio, recording, I want you back, ABC. They didn't know that. Not even a block away. We go to this recording studio and record these songs. And they put up the track, and we learned it and singing and all day.
Starting point is 00:38:00 We pretty much do a song a day, but we came back to finish it, the next day, they really, they really completed, finish it the next day. It took us about a day and a half to finish the whole song. That's what we did. We had a, and the reason being is that we were youngsters, and we had a social worker that came with us. So she made sure that they didn't work us over three hours.
Starting point is 00:38:20 So we only had three hours to. You did all that work in a three-hour. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of songs. And Michael were going there and hit, Michael would ad lib and do his own adelps and he made all that stuff and all this adlives at the end.
Starting point is 00:38:38 That's him. They didn't tell him that he made up all that stuff. Yeah. Wow. That's exhausting. Yeah. And that was almost every day. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:48 Even the weekends. Yeah, even the weekends. Weekends were longer. Yeah. So the next day we come back to school on Monday and we're on the Ed Sullivan show. And all we come back to school. school and all the kids noticed that, wait a minute, these are the Jackson's. They noticed that being on the Ed Sullivan show.
Starting point is 00:39:10 We go back to school the next day. I'm in the classroom. And all of a sudden, I'm in the classroom sitting in the classroom. And all these kids from all the other schools would come to, come to Fairfax High School from all other kids come over and just screaming after the screen, like pandemonium. And the kids wonder, what's going on? Why are they screaming? Well, they saw me in the classroom.
Starting point is 00:39:32 and they start screaming like crazy. They didn't know we were the Jackson. Now let me tell you something. This is my first time hearing Jackie's story about that. And I have to say, Michael and I, we were going to Emerson Junior High School. And we were, same thing happened to us, to the point that kids just started going crazy.
Starting point is 00:39:54 They had to pull us out of school because we were disrupting class. The whole school, and they put us in private school. So you went to a regular school first. Yes. We went to regular. No other contemporaries of yours were in like Fairfax High, none of these things? No, we went.
Starting point is 00:40:11 I went to, when we got here, nobody knew who the Jackson Five were. So I went to Bancroft Junior High. Michael went to Garnett. I mean, Michael. Gardner. Gardner Elementary School. Then the following year, Michael and I went over to Emerson, Jr. High.
Starting point is 00:40:28 We only was able to go for two weeks because we were disrupting the classes and the kids were going crazy. Wow. So you didn't get, so what's the, like in private school, is it more different because all of you are industry kids or? We were going to school with some of the main celebrity kids. They would go to the same school with us. And even, well, this is a funny story. Joe McLean if you know
Starting point is 00:40:58 who John McLean is. John McLean. Wait, this is what you don't get. The most elusive person that we've been dying to get on the show
Starting point is 00:41:09 is John McLean. Oh, so John, so John to tell his story, he said his mom brought him to this private school. Right. And he said, Mom,
Starting point is 00:41:21 I don't go here. I don't want to go here. I don't want to go here. And John said, Of a sudden, he looked. So Tito won't approach. Yeah, he said, is that Tito Jackson? Wait, hey, Mom, I'm fine.
Starting point is 00:41:34 I'm fine. I want to go here. Bye, mom. Bye. Bye, mom. That's true story. All right. Because of your popularity, did everybody have to go to the special school now?
Starting point is 00:41:47 Like the girls, too, and I don't know if Randy was here by now, but everybody just have to get the rest of school? Yeah, pretty much. Eventually, they did. Yes. Yes, they did. Eventually, yeah. But, you know, that's what took place.
Starting point is 00:42:02 That's what happened with us. It's, you know. Pride Month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence. Iheart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride. Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride Canada. Your 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for.
Starting point is 00:42:27 your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride! Iheart Radio. I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers
Starting point is 00:42:48 calling the place soccer, football, at home. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force.
Starting point is 00:43:04 From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernando Chavarri, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game. The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like? Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer,
Starting point is 00:43:38 listen to American Football as part of the My Coutura Podcast Network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.
Starting point is 00:44:20 I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice. but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me.
Starting point is 00:44:38 It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Paris Houghton,
Starting point is 00:44:57 Shakira, and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited. On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305 where the group chat comes to life. What a f***.
Starting point is 00:45:11 It's like a way to say like, Oh, my God, my God, Myrana. Look, I never have ever had to be with nobody. Except with my kids, my my son. I'm a man.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Uff! That's incredible! Yeah, the telenovela. You're the only person I know that loves a Yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. There's a woman that's a little. I'm like you say, I'd like to collaborate with this person.
Starting point is 00:45:40 This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Culturea Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And there's an incredible because their new star is Javier Tichorito Hernandez. Everyone sees me as a football player,
Starting point is 00:46:03 but before anything else, I'm human. Every single day, I'm still learning how to live with problems, mistakes, relationships, emotions ever since I was born. And I still have so many questions. Where do we come from? What happens after death? How do you deal with cancellation? Cristiano or Messi?
Starting point is 00:46:17 Do aliens exist? What is love? Real Madrid or Barcelona? From everyday and ordinary to the deep and extraordinary. This isn't a normal podcast. Everything here is spontaneous, real and genuine. This podcast is like a deep talk with your closest friends, where vulnerability comes out. Conspiracy theories end up on the table and goals and lessons are here.
Starting point is 00:46:37 In this life has an order perfect and all is just. Wait me, I'm going to pressuram, but me will go to go to work. We are here to connect. The Chicharito. And Javier Tchariot. And together with Iha Radio, we're going to make the ordinary, extraordinary. Stay close. It is a carac.
Starting point is 00:46:51 Wow. Listen to learning to be human on IHard Radio, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. I know that your parents' concerns over gang culture in Indiana was one thing. But most of us that don't. don't live in Los Angeles. Most of us, especially when you're thinking of, like,
Starting point is 00:47:13 for young black people, like gang culture was a part of life. Like, how is that avoided? Well, my father made sure. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:21 I'm like, he laid down the law. That's it. We had to be inside before the streetlights came on. Oh, yeah. That's what's supposed to be.
Starting point is 00:47:29 This was supposed to be. You said, yeah, that's what it's supposed to be. Yeah, that's how I came up too. Same thing. Street lights.
Starting point is 00:47:38 You better not get caught us. I thought we did the street lights on. So, okay, was it still, okay, what was the chore situation at the house? Like, was that, yeah, I mean, I'm certain that you still had to. Oh, yeah, we had to, we had chores. We had chores. We had to wash the dishes. Even after we made it with the Jackson Five and came out, we still had chores.
Starting point is 00:48:07 Well, y'all still lived in the house together, right? So, yeah, so it was, I think, Michael and I week to do the dishes. And Jackie and somebody else had a week. Yeah. Somebody, you know, had a week. Yeah. So there was a system in the house. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:22 Yeah. We had chores. Is the family resident still, Encino? Is that still where your mother is? Yeah. Yeah, but we were on Queens Road prior to that. Yeah, we were on Queens. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:35 And we first got here. We were on Queens Road. Well, we first stayed at the Tropicana Motel. Oh, wow. On Santa Monica. Is that on Santa Monica? A little Santa Monica? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:49 And when I got there the first time, and I got the Caldala Sandals, I couldn't believe how people were living. I almost crying. I said, man, even living like this all my life, living this good life like this, and driving Ferraris and rural voices down the street, I mean, it was just amazing. I mean, people living in the hills and the palm trees.
Starting point is 00:49:08 You know what I'm saying? And I'm in Gary Nanda freezing my butt off and these people live like this. I've been denied. We lived in a tropical can of for a while. And then before we went to Queens Road, Tito, we lived with Donna Ross. Yes.
Starting point is 00:49:29 And she had a house with white carpet everywhere in white walls. I think some of the furniture was white. And she, she told up the house with us. We all tore that house. They paint on the walls and paint the walls like, yeah. Yeah, we had fun, yeah. They also had a lot of money, but you had a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:49:52 Yeah, that she just sounds great. No, when a person has white walls, you can't touch them. I never heard no black woman's house like that. Yeah, I was like, I was waiting for the other side of the story. Mary Wilson would come over to the house. They were so kind of, so, the main. Mary would. would come over, you know, for, you know.
Starting point is 00:50:11 How's my babies? Yeah. Yeah. So we, you know, we were young kids, but we had fun and they made sure that we had fun too. I mean, you know, they used to pick us up and take us to the movie sometime down. Matter of fact, Donald Ross picked Michael and I up when she first had her first baby. And this is where she lived on Maple and Beverly Hills. And we all went upstairs.
Starting point is 00:50:36 We all went upstairs. to paint some drapes because she was having a baby, her first kid. So we painted the drapes and drew figures on it for the kid. And we had a great time. You know, it was a small family. I mean, really, huh? Well, I want to know from Tito and Jackie because you two are older. I guess in my mind, because I see the Jackson's as kind of the first family of
Starting point is 00:51:05 post-civil rights movement. like all the struggle that happened before 1968, like you guys are the first to flourish into post-civil rights activity, but you guys are also teenagers in Los Angeles. And you're successful at that. So I'm certain that there's also moments where, like, you're in situations in which you're the only black person there
Starting point is 00:51:30 or you're driving an elaborate car that normally isn't, you know, associated with people that look at, like you, like how hard was it to navigate in Los Angeles as teenagers where it's not so cute? I mean, it's one thing when it's like Marlon and Michael who are like 11, 12, younger. Was it different for a young black teenager in 1972, 73, 74, like the first half of the 70s? I had an experience once, because when I was about, I was in my, late teens or early 20s
Starting point is 00:52:11 and I had gotten myself a Mercedes the 350 SAL I think it was and that's when I had stopped to get gasoline for my automobile and this is a time
Starting point is 00:52:26 when they put gas in your car you don't have to do it, they do it for you and I'll pull in the guy I say, what do you want? I said fill it up and can you check the oil So I pull the lever for the thing
Starting point is 00:52:43 And you know on the car you know there's two levers There's one outside as well so I yank you know I say whoa whoa whoa whoa let me So I go out show him how to do it things to he slams my hood Then um Pumps my gas and drip gas all on the side of my car And then takes Then I go inside and I
Starting point is 00:53:07 I noticed he's calling it on my credit card. So I told him, I said, I don't want to pay for the service. So he goes to the people and he goes, wait a minute. He goes to a drawer, pulls out a gun, holds it to my head and says, sign it. Of course, I signed it. I immediately, this is before cell phones. I go to a stop at the phone booth, call our security, Bill Brake, who's a detective, He rushes out to Chatsworth where I was immediately and go to the police station,
Starting point is 00:53:44 explain the story to them. They go over to the station, picks up the guy and come back, and then they tell us that if we, if we arrest this man, we're going to have to arrest Mr. Jackson, too, for not, for refusing to pay for service. So the guy walked, that's how, that's how it is. it. Yep. So, of course it was. And this guy, I guess he wasn't used to seeing a young black guy of color, whether he's young or not. You know, it was such a nice automobile because back then those Mercedes were very hot items. And now it was only 19 driving one. So,
Starting point is 00:54:28 well, my, my story is, is, is a little different. This is, uh, we had our TV show, the Jackson show. And the variety one. Yeah. And, you know, and we lived in Encino. And a lot of, and we were shooting that showed somewhere, not at the CBS slot, but somewhere else. So I would come through Beverly Hills and over the hill to go home. And my first car was a Porsche, a Porsche. And the police saw me driving.
Starting point is 00:54:58 So he pulls me over. And he walks up to the car and said, is this your car? I say yes he said driver's license such and such I gave it to him he sees Encino
Starting point is 00:55:11 on it why are you going home this way and I'm looking like what do you mean when I'm going home this way yeah
Starting point is 00:55:21 you can go home any kind of way you want to yeah and who says I'm going home I mean and then
Starting point is 00:55:26 and then he says well where you get the money to buy a car like this from and I tell him you know I'm an artist
Starting point is 00:55:33 I do record and whatever. And he wrote me up some funny take, wrote me up a ticket for it, whatever it said. I gave it to our people to take care of. But I think Jackie, all of us used to get pulled over all the time.
Starting point is 00:55:50 Asing us, I got a real funny story for you. Used to give us tickets and pull us over just to harass us. But here's my real funny story. This story is so funny that I could, Jackie, you know what I get her tell. So Michael's first car was a Rose Royce. Right.
Starting point is 00:56:13 And he was 18. But Michael, he parked anywhere. He didn't know. So one day I'm driving down the street. I thought it was so funny. I'm driving out of street. The police got Michael handcuffed to a bench. Wait, what?
Starting point is 00:56:33 Because he had a lot of parking tickets. What? Did you stop? No, they probably... I never heard that story. See, the journalists are asking the wrong questions. Wait, but Martin, did you stop when you saw him? Yeah, I did, but you can say too much.
Starting point is 00:57:00 And they let him go after us. I mean, you know, it's back in those days, you could, she couldn't say too much. You pull up the street and you just look from behind in the mirror and make sure he, all right. Right. Right. Yeah. Marlon, Marlon, tell him the story when we went down to Alabama for my mother's, they took Michael. He went into this, Michael went to this, uh, his shot.
Starting point is 00:57:22 Oh, yeah. Antique shut down south. Tell him what happened. Yeah, yeah, Mike, Mike, like antique. So the security was with him. So Bill said, I'm going to go to a restaurant right. quick. And the owner of the store,
Starting point is 00:57:36 I don't know if he called the police or whatever. He thought Michael was trying to steal stuff out of the store. He didn't know who he was. And I think he, and he got a gun. And then Bill's, and they took Michael somewhere. And Bill went looking for Michael and looking for Michael with Jackie.
Starting point is 00:57:52 I didn't forgot some of this stuff. He took Michael to the back room somewhere and tied him down. Michael's in the back room somewhere like in the back room. Wait, wait. What year was this? In the back shed. This is like, this is like in the 70s. Late 70s.
Starting point is 00:58:06 Yeah. It is the South. We're looking all over with Michael. They had him tied down in the back shit. It's almost like the Klan was going to take them away or somewhere. You know, they were saving for that or something. What? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:18 Yeah. Oh, my God. The story started with Alabama. Alabama. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This can't end up.
Starting point is 00:58:27 In West. So we're looking for Michael all. Michael all over the place. This guy had him tied down in the back room. And this was like an antique stuff full of books, all kind of antique. There's Michael liked the old stuff. He liked buying stuff like that. Right.
Starting point is 00:58:43 And they took him. They thought he was trying to steal something. And he took him in the back room. And we went in the store. We couldn't find him. He was in some other kind of shit behind that store. He was in another kind of back building. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 00:58:55 You didn't remember that Michael Jackson? Yeah. Was it hard to get him release? Yeah, we got him released and they realized who he was. But we let it go. We didn't put it in the press. We let it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:06 And if it wasn't him, though. Until now. Yeah. It was like a regular. Right. Right. Right. If it was any other Jackson, right.
Starting point is 00:59:12 It was Michael Johnson or something. Right. Right. Speaking of Bill Bray. So I came across this, this, this, this like, raw footage of a concert. I mean, I guess it was the Destiny era. But I was just looking at this footage. And I'm noticing that.
Starting point is 00:59:31 The way that security is handled is not like it is now. Like there was no separation gate or something to hold fans back. Like basically fans were one inch away from, you know, climbing on stage. And there's a point where I guess Bill Bray is giving you guys like a pep talk backstage on, you know what my signals are. Right. How often did you guys have to prematurely cut a show? getting him all the time
Starting point is 01:00:02 man all the time so getting through a show was actually a hard thing to do yeah it was it was a song that popped them off or was it just like the moment you stepped on stage the moment we step on stage the moment they said
Starting point is 01:00:17 the moment they said lies on me I know that's right now that's a fantastic answer It was penitomorne. And believe it or not, there was a few times where we had bomb threats, you know, and at one time they did find a bomb under the stage. They brought in the police dogs and all that stuff. So, you know, it's been different.
Starting point is 01:00:50 So it's been different. We've been through a bunch of years ago, we used to go to shows in armored trucks. Because even on the victory tour, we had dead threats. we sure did really wow yeah you're all brave for a bunch of fucking musicians
Starting point is 01:01:05 yeah what was the decision to not I mean you know we live in a time now where you know especially in social media just everything's transparent and there's you know nothing that's not revealed
Starting point is 01:01:22 what was the decision and not ever releasing these stories that things have happened for fear that copycats might try to follow or it just never dawned on us we you know it was part of our life and i don't know as we talked the pop it's happened it just you know we never tried to we weren't crazy about you know putting stuff in the press and and and those type of things you know we just move on with our life and keep going i remember one time long time ago uh in
Starting point is 01:01:55 chastworth again chasworth california my kids were at a park and my son drood in the grass and a whole bunch of people stood up and they were the KKK. And some other friend came and
Starting point is 01:02:12 my wife and Jackie's wife and I jumped in the car and took off. They came with bats and chains and somebody called the police and said there was a bunch of black ladies with Afro wigs
Starting point is 01:02:28 I mean, huge afros and driving in the Mercedes down the streets, none of them had an, none of them had an afro, but they just saw the color of your skin and they just said afro. And it was crazy. They were coming after them to kill them. They were having a picnic and they jumped in the car, got all these stuff, and just took off.
Starting point is 01:02:51 And these are guys with chains and bats coming after females. Were you guys, to like share these situations and lean on some of your peers because I'm sure y'all weren't the only ones going through stuff. Yeah. Like who do y'all talk to about how to navigate all this stuff at that time of y'all lives? Not to mention you got parents from the South, but still. Sometimes we take care of it ourselves.
Starting point is 01:03:18 That's all need to be saying. So what, Tito, you need to stop my name and we're like, next question. We're from Indiana. I'm telling me, take care of it all there. I love it. It was the way you said it. With the bowler hat. You know what you're doing. The bowler that's what sets it off.
Starting point is 01:03:35 I know. That's what makes it official. So then, wait, I think Tito answered this question when he came before. Who is the first Jackson to pop off? Tito, you said, Jermaine is the first Jackson on the pop to want to. Like to fight. Like if you book. Yes.
Starting point is 01:03:50 Well, I would bug. Jermaine would run home to mama. That's right. Jermaine was a. That's right. He was a talented. He started to fight. He started to fight.
Starting point is 01:03:58 leave me fighting and run home and tell Mama I'm fighting. Yeah. Wait, Marley, I have a question. So one of my favorite J5 albums was get it together and in particular. I mean, I realize it now
Starting point is 01:04:19 when I was older that that was actually used. No, no, no. Mama, the cover of Mama got brand new thing, don't say no. I'm realizing that's you singing on it. How are you guys, what would you say, Fonte? I'm having lost words. You would call it the operation of division of labor.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Division of labor. Yeah, what is the division of labor as far as who gets what part or? No, well, that song was produced by Howard Davis. Right. So he would tell us who's going to sing this, who's going to sing that. Who's going to sing this? Even in the corporation, you're going to sing this part. You're going to sing this part.
Starting point is 01:05:04 And that's what we did when they, you know, and that's what we did. Did you sing on any other Jackson songs that didn't make it or like? I think body language is another one that I sung on too. Oh, no. He said that didn't make it. He said some of the can't. Some of the can stuff. Quest has been so long ago, I got CRS.
Starting point is 01:05:34 Can't remember shit? Can't remember what they stood for. I couldn't have that. He got the CRS disease. Yeah, I sure do. You know, after you get past 50, you know, stuff come and go. Can I ask you a dancing question then that you may remember? Sure.
Starting point is 01:05:54 I don't mean that. Wait, wait, wait, that don't mean I'm going to answer it. I'm going to get something. Somebody going to say something. How does it feel to be the Giff of the moment right now? I ain't worth. Right. For real, for real.
Starting point is 01:06:05 Marlon's the jiff of the moment right now. You're the meme. Yeah, that, yeah. That too, but I was going to ask you, like, your dancing story, like, you talked about you and Michael being fans and Jackie Wilson and being a fan of dance. But I'm just curious, like, as you evolved, as dance evolved, like, who were some of the folks that you started looking to, like. We, believe it not, we used to watch James Brown.
Starting point is 01:06:26 Like you said, Jackie Wilson. We used to watch Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. Ginger Rogers. No, no, no, no. We went to tip. We were walking on our toes now. You know what Timmy's going? Marlon and Michael go knock on Fred Astor's door.
Starting point is 01:06:43 No, no, let me tell that story, Jackie. Jackie, I got, so, so one day, you know, Michael said, Ma'a, come pick me up. I don't feel like driving to the studio. I said, okay, I'm going to come get you. And we drove Michael's car, his road source. So he and I in the car. Michael said, well, Marla, I want you to go this way.
Starting point is 01:07:00 I said, why are we going this way? He said, just go this way. And then we're going through Beverly Hills. He said, turn down this street. I said, well, you're not going to studio, Mike? He said, there it is to drive down. Mike, I'm not driving down somebody's driveway. Marla, just drive down the driveway.
Starting point is 01:07:17 He'd get out the car and knock on the door. It was Fred Astaire's house. Security. He got out the car. on the door, Fred Astaire wasn't home. I don't know where he was. And I said, that's where Fred Astaire live. That's his house. And somebody
Starting point is 01:07:34 answered the door and told him that Fred Astaire wasn't home at the time. And then we went on to the studio. But they did the same thing to St. David's house too, right? Yes. You all just walk us to people. One time we were in
Starting point is 01:07:48 and oftentimes figuring out why we were there, though. We were, so we Richard Pryor lived in North, and Northridge. So we, Michael and I, I don't think I ever told you all this, Jackie. So Michael now, we stopped. We went to Richard Pryor's house, right? We knock on the door, he come in, he's talking to us.
Starting point is 01:08:03 And what was so funny to me, the time we're leaving, and Richard goes to us. He said, yeah, that's the Mercedes. I shot the tires out of when she tried to leave. Wait, what? Yeah. When she tried to leave, right, Mama? Uh-huh.
Starting point is 01:08:22 Do you ever remember that? I was also asking like after Fred is there Like as the time went on The 70s the 80s Where there other folks too that you were like Because I know Michael implemented new styles And dance and form into his thing But Marlin I mean
Starting point is 01:08:37 I know you do your thing I see you still do your thing Well thank you appreciate Yeah Wait can I add to that question Yeah What? Did you guys work with Charlie Atkins at all?
Starting point is 01:08:48 No No Never did Never did Who is the choreographer For the Jackson 5 Jackie In the very beginning
Starting point is 01:08:57 we got assistance from Suzanne de Paz She helped A choreographed some of the I Want You Back stuff Yeah Sullivan But after that is basically Even before that it was always Been the group doing their own thing
Starting point is 01:09:12 Yeah Jackie Michael and I We fool around Jackie Michael and I Until we realize we're running out of time Then we said we better get serious with this That's what we did on Motown, 20th we spent almost two or three hours in the room talking. We look at it.
Starting point is 01:09:27 Hey, the show tomorrow, we don't have any choreography. Wait, what? Wow. Y'all did that the night before? Y'all did that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. What?
Starting point is 01:09:37 Yeah. Oh, shit. So my question, what was your thoughts? This movie means the world to us, but to y'all want to know, the VH1 of American Jackson's American Dream. American Dream? Yeah. What are your thoughts on that music?
Starting point is 01:09:51 You got to ask Jack Hint, I've never seen it. You lie. Seriously? No, I've never seen it. I've never seen it. Marl and me, too. All right.
Starting point is 01:10:02 Wait, seriously? I saw parts of it. I've never seen it. But can I tell you something? My father wasn't like that. They made him like he was so, I mean, he wasn't like that. They wouldn't. Like a real bad guy in the movie.
Starting point is 01:10:18 He was not like that. I have to be. Yeah, just straight. Yeah, it's for the movie. I mean, my father disciplined us because he had six boys, you know, and around gangs like that. He wasn't like that. No. But matter of fact, that's how we learned how to dance.
Starting point is 01:10:32 Dodging that belt. Right. Yeah, I was going to ask you all that, too, just particularly about your dad because, you know, he's passed. And I was watching the other day, they showed the, they have a new Tiger Woods documentary that's on, this out now. And, you know, you know, there's the kind of the telling, you know, you think of just the strict father that's just kind of. driving the kids and your dad has always kind of been just the, the symbol of just the hard, you know, disciplinary father. And so I was just curious to know from in your guys on words, you know, what was that relationship like? I mean, you know, he's been kind of demonized in a
Starting point is 01:11:07 lot of ways. But since his passing and just over the years, if y'all have, as y'all have grown his men and become fathers yourselves, how is that, how do y'all look at y'all relationship with your dad now? When you realize, you know, you go back and realize, you know, what he was doing was right. I mean, we came from a bad neighborhood in Gary, Indiana. And he, I mean, he kept us out of that situation by keeping us busy, keeping us rehearsing. He saw we had talent, and he said, if you want to be something, you've got to work out. And that's what he did.
Starting point is 01:11:41 And back in those days, you know, her parents raised kids was different, you know, even your neighbors, your parents would get you. You know, that's how it was back in those days. It was a, you can't do that stuff today. It's a whole different. Today, but not just the way it was back then, you know? Yeah. Today those are jokes, break their knuckles down in 911. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:04 That must be something as parents and grandparents now seeing the way their kids are like disciplined. Yeah. Wow. I called it. Yeah, it was a different time. When I look at, you know, just when I think about, you know, your dad's, your dad's, legacy and just what he was able to help y'all build, you know, it's just, you know, whenever I see people being real harsh about, you know, men of that time, I'm just like, listen,
Starting point is 01:12:30 dude, like, white folk just ran up into Capitol. Yeah. What was they doing in 1959? You know what I'm saying? Like, what were, you know what I'm saying? What think about what those guys were up against back then trying to raise, you know, you know, all these kids and keep them out of trouble. Nine children.
Starting point is 01:12:46 And working in a steel mill, like, come the fuck on, dude. You got to put that in context, you know? So I was always curious to hear y'all thoughts on it. Man, I went to the Steel Mill one time and saw what my father worked. Man, they lit up that steel door and all that heat and fire came out and I said, oh, my God, how does he work in a place like this all the time? I mean, I couldn't believe it. Yeah, Jackie took us home and wanted to rehearse even more.
Starting point is 01:13:13 It's better than being in the Steelview. Never, never will I. I dance to Don't. Jackie, were you at one point seriously trying to consider a career in baseball at all? Wait, wait, wait, Jackie, bag that up, not consider. The White Sox was looking at him. Oh. Oh, wait, well, what?
Starting point is 01:13:34 Wow. Oh, well, talk about it. I didn't know that. Talk about it, Jackie. Come on. Yeah. Talk about that. No, my fact, we all play baseball. We all great baseball players, all of us.
Starting point is 01:13:45 And I was a shortstop in a pitcher. and they was after me and stuff like that. But, you know, I thought I made the right move by sticking with my brothers because the singing career lasts forever. You can sing forever, you know. You can sing with bad knees. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:06 Yeah, but, you know, I did the right thing. We did the right thing to stay with the group and stay with the boys. Because I would see, you know, often in, like, right on magazine or whatever, the periodicals were at the time of like you guys actually had your own softball team like how was that arranged like celebrity softball games versus each other would just be a thing of you calling them up or was it like some official thing that you guys were playing we had we had
Starting point is 01:14:35 some of the coldest baseball teams we had uh we had willie guard on our team we had a are you all we had anthony david we had anthony on our team from USC and football we had we like the Colas and all those guys play baseball too. You know, they play college baseball. We were winning championship every year. So Billy Crystal. Billy Crystal decided they're going to get their team, him and Rob Reiner and all of them.
Starting point is 01:15:03 Oh, wow. No, no, no, no. Yes, I need the story. They're going to come and play us. Yeah. You know, Sam, boys, did you? You know, Sam Watson? you know Sam, anyone knows Sam Watson.
Starting point is 01:15:18 He's always in the ring all the time with the fighters. And, you know, the great hair. With the group. The same words are you not supposed to say, but only he's supposed to say it? He says Sam Watson. Yeah. With the fighters. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:31 Sam was on our baseball baseball. Sam was the great baseball player. He can play. Oh, yeah. Sound good play. Wow. So this is. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:40 Because I would notice all your appearances on Soul Train, Marlon, we talk the most junk about you guys the sports prowess and in basketball and softball I didn't know if that was like
Starting point is 01:15:54 an actual thing like there was a no it's serious then there's a there's a picture somewhere I saw Jackie
Starting point is 01:16:02 playing basketball Jackie used to play Marvin Gay all the time at Marving Gay's house didn't you Jackie yeah he'd go one-on-one
Starting point is 01:16:10 he would call me over and we'd play one-on-one he said Jackie ain't paying no damn taxes ain't and he wrote a song about that I can't pay my taxes make me want to holler right
Starting point is 01:16:24 right right we should play all the time one-on-one all the time at his house he called me old was he any good was that mom but he would push you around Marvin played really rough though he's dirty okay
Starting point is 01:16:36 really yeah yeah yeah when you're in when you get to L.A. like who and older who were your peers or like like, who would you hang with?
Starting point is 01:16:47 Was it just in-house or? Did you guys have like a relationship with the silvers or anybody that was remotely your age or anything? Can I say, we just hung together. We stayed in the recordings to be all the time. That's all we did, record, record, record, even on Sundays. They recorded all the time. All the time.
Starting point is 01:17:07 And then when we go out and do concerts, we had a curfew. So we had to be in bed at a certain time. and moms will come and tell our security. I know my daughter's up in them Jackson. Like you said, I can guarantee you they ain't with one of them Jackson's. They might be with one of them band members, but they ain't with one of them Jackson's. I just did bed check and they all did. A very first big concert.
Starting point is 01:17:36 You know where it was, Molly? The very first big concert. You know where it was? At the forum with... No, and I'm talking about that one. the very first big one, guess where it was? Tell me, Jacketown. Philadelphia.
Starting point is 01:17:49 Philadelphia Spectrum. Wow. Philadelphia. He said, that's where it was. Remember? Man. The first big start out, that's with Philadelphia. That's where it was.
Starting point is 01:17:59 Okay, so there's a folklore tale. One of the most famous graffiti writers in Philadelphia, his name is Cornbread. The legend of Cornbread is like the places that he would tag his name. and the reason why that Philadelphia show, the reason why I know about it, even though I wasn't old enough to know about it, is that somehow Cornbread had managed to tag
Starting point is 01:18:26 the Jackson 5 airplane with his name, which basically set his legend into, like the graffiti world. He tagged the Jackson 5 airplane from their Philadelphia spectrum show. I don't even know that. Yeah, yeah, no. I mean, he's still living off
Starting point is 01:18:43 that folklore right now. He's like 63 years old. He finally signed a jacket for me after decades of baking for it. I want to ask about the move to Epic. You know, between, there's sort of that period in which past the beginning stage of Motown where you guys are putting the Vegas act together, about to do the variety show. And of course, you moved to Philly International epic. What was basically, I mean, were you guys trying to develop your music even before then? Like, were you guys writing, actively writing and producing by that point? Yeah, we've learned so much, you know, by being with all the Motown writers and producers. It's like going to school there anyway because you learn so much they teach you at the same time.
Starting point is 01:19:39 and all the wonderful hits that we had with Motown, who would put us on the mouth, Barry Gordy and the whole crew of the crew of writers. It's just amazing what they done for us. At that time, our contract was running out. We felt that it was time for us to start writing some of our music because at that time we felt the music was kind of young, the ABC and a little bit,
Starting point is 01:20:02 and kind of bubble gummers, but it was the type of music that was geared to everybody to love. But we decided it's time Let's to start writing some music So we decided to No longer sign with Montaum town To go to another label Where we can show them
Starting point is 01:20:18 Our ability to write songs And also produce records So they put us with Camel and Huff You know And we were so excited to be with those guys Because those guys were known for writing hits On groups like Taylor Pendergrass And the OJs
Starting point is 01:20:34 The list goes on and on Cowboys the girls. That's my favorite. Cowboys the girl. What's the name of that group? Intruthers. Intruthers. Intruthers.
Starting point is 01:20:46 We figured that if we get with the Jackson kid with Gamble and Huff, it's over with it. It's going to be big time. You know what I'm saying? What are your thoughts on those albums now? Like now over time? Oh, it's incredible, incredible, man. Gambling Huff, we got there.
Starting point is 01:21:02 We spent time just talking and talking. We did the whole album. in two weeks. Two weeks. Man. Wow. Well, I will say my favorite material is still, I mean, the Gamala stuff, I mean, enjoy yourself and show you the way.
Starting point is 01:21:16 I mean, those are classes. But for me personally, man, I just love when y'all wrote your own stuff. Like, that was, that shit was jamming. I just like y'all, y'all doing your own material, man. That shit was just, it was great. So we wrote, you know, first we wrote two songs on the album, then we, Gammona Hut wrote the rest, and took some of them
Starting point is 01:21:36 all of a sudden they gave us a whole album and started writing because, you know, I guess, I guess it was happening. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:21:44 Yeah, I was going to say, um, my elementary school was right next door to Philly International. So oftentimes, like first, second grade,
Starting point is 01:21:55 I'd see you guys running to your car on Broad Street. Really? Yeah, my, I went to a performing art school, which was, if Philly International, I think was three,
Starting point is 01:22:06 10 Broad Street. My school was 313. So oftentimes you'd see like Teddy Pendigrant. You'd see everyone outside. But, you know, of course, I knew when the Jackson's were in proximity because every girl in that school would just run outside. And it's like, oh, the Jackson's must be next door or something. But I asked that question about the 70s because it just hit me. Can you tell me who the group MDLT was? Because I collect a lot of records. and probably one of the highest price 45s that someone tried to get me for was a Jackson 5 produced
Starting point is 01:22:44 song called What's Your Game by MDLT? What's your game? It was like they were, MDLT was like a, I think the legends that they were on ivory. Ivory Tower. Yeah, ivory tower. They were like four girls.
Starting point is 01:23:02 Yeah, that's my father's group. Okay, so they just, sort of like the Dina Ross thing. They just used the... And of course, the sucker like me comes along. It's like, yeah, I'll pay $1,000 for that. Okay, I get it now. So that was just on his label,
Starting point is 01:23:17 but you guys didn't specifically produce that single or anything, correct? I don't remember producing. We're doing anything on this show. Yes, you did. You don't remember. Yes, we did. You don't remember it.
Starting point is 01:23:28 He's right. We did that. Okay. I at least don't feel ripped off or paying for that. we did we did okay so Jackie
Starting point is 01:23:40 I mentioned this in your in your brother's documentary for off the wall that one of my favorite
Starting point is 01:23:52 moments in discovering that that demo on shake your body down to the ground was you yelling I can't wait for the BGs to hear this shit
Starting point is 01:24:02 which Yes. You said that? Oh, my God. Yeah, it's my favorite thing ever. It's right at, it's right at the end of the demo and it stops. And he's like, I can't wait for the BGs to hear this shit. Mom, we was at your house.
Starting point is 01:24:19 And then that song we were doing, like a half a song we was messing around, this messing around with a groove and we was making up something. Remember that? And I said something like, I can, with the BGs here. He's right. I said that. And they called that stuff. And that stuff went viral, didn't it?
Starting point is 01:24:36 A lot of people heard that. It went viral. Yeah. Wow. Like what were your... I don't remember that. I mean, at that, at that point, I know that you had to, you know, something to prove. And this is like the moment that you guys are going to step to the plate and produce your own material.
Starting point is 01:24:50 But were you guys seriously eyeing like, okay, they sold 12 million units? That's us. Like, that's what we want? Like what... Oh, yeah. In your mind, were they the standards of who to be? Like, why not Earth went in fire or P-Funk or... I don't know what made me say that about the BG.
Starting point is 01:25:09 It just came out. Right. I went to BG to BG to this shit. It just happened. I just named the BG. It could have been. I could have been in it. It just, you know, it just happened.
Starting point is 01:25:18 We was just seeing something like a little group just making something as we go along. And I said, wait until BG here this shit or something like that. I remember something like that. Oh, okay. Ironically, we all get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. together oh together oh man okay
Starting point is 01:25:38 all that came out bg's yeah I also I also ask your brother Randy this question so in terms of presentation and theatrics like you guys definitely
Starting point is 01:25:49 raise the game higher I mean by that point in 77 you know Earthwin fire was bringing theatrics to the game and and P-Funk definitely
Starting point is 01:25:59 was bringing theatrics to the game but yeah man it was tough then I always wanted to know, though, why was Randy the designated adjectiveator? Like, usually any explosions were because of Randy, either throwing you guys in a pit or throwing some flashpaper and exploiting. Like, why was he the one like?
Starting point is 01:26:24 It's like, you guys are brothers in the first 23 minutes, and then Randy does this terrorist act. Like, okay, then I'm going to throw you. this fire and it's going to explode and we'll have on new outfits like well of course you're right I've never looked at it like that but you're right though why was he the designated bad guy that had to do
Starting point is 01:26:44 because he wasn't in the Jackson fire that's why I'm just kidding how would you guys conceptualize those shows though that joke used to cry when we used to go on the road and drive down our driveway going out the gate
Starting point is 01:27:02 hitting for the airport, he would cry like a baby, sitting in the driver, because he thought he was coming with us. You know, so we thought he wasn't. He pushed the button for the gate for the car to leave. Did y'all, y'all didn't initiate him when he came, when he finally would become apart, did you? Like, did you? He was always there.
Starting point is 01:27:22 No, but he, but he, go ahead. He was around, he, he was hanging around before he became, you know, full member. When he became a full member, I remember, doing this concert one time. This is so funny. During this concert, packed to the rapists all the way around,
Starting point is 01:27:39 a number of people. So Randy's on the stage. He gives his shot to be on the stage and he was playing his ass. He can play some kudles and barros and all that stuff, you know? It's all of a sudden it was time for Randy to do a solo, right? All of a sudden, he gets the spotlight, get on it, for him to play and do a solo, right? Right.
Starting point is 01:27:59 And the music breaks. And Randy froze up. Randy looked up and saw all these people who started looking around around like this around. He forgot his solo. He didn't play. He said, Randy, play, play. Play, man.
Starting point is 01:28:17 He looked around all these 40,000 people in there. Oh, man. Yeah, he didn't play, man. They came on later. Yeah, he came in later. Yeah. I'm going to tell you a story on the 30th anniversary. We was doing, you know, shake your body.
Starting point is 01:28:36 We went to one corner of the stage and we ran to the other corner of the stage. So we ran to the, and y'all didn't even know this was happening on stage. We ran to the corner of stage and we do our break and we freeze. And we just wait in there, waiting there, waiting. And Michael goes, what's next? What's next? I said, Michael, you're supposed to count it off? What? this is going on this is going on stage your
Starting point is 01:29:01 didn't even know it oh he didn't know the next cue no the next cue was him he's supposed to go to start the band again oh and he's telling us what's next what's next that's good editing for television
Starting point is 01:29:21 yeah what's next what's next I remember that yeah so For those shows, though, how much preparation goes into that? And like, who decides what musicians come aboard,
Starting point is 01:29:34 who decides, like, Doug Henning is now, I'm assuming that's Duck Henning that helped stage. The only thing Doug Henning did was the magic. That's all he did.
Starting point is 01:29:48 Even introducing magic to a show. Like, who, like, what's the pre-meeting, the pre-meeting, situation like before that even before Jackie
Starting point is 01:30:00 you might not know before you all came Michael and I went and we met with Doug Henning to look at all whatever magic he had and we picked the one we picked the one that goes up and the explosion there that would work for the show and then you all came the second time we used Mackey it wasn't Doug Henney
Starting point is 01:30:21 Jackie who was I forgot who the other he's on come on Copperfield? No. David Copperfield. He's right. Oh. David Carpher.
Starting point is 01:30:30 Oh shit. Yeah. He's big. He's right. David Carpher. He's right. He's the one. But what was the decision to add
Starting point is 01:30:40 those elements to the show that just came out of nowhere? Because, you know, at that particular time, a lot of acts were doing something similar to that. You know, they had something special like a, uh, uh, so, So like an illusion or something like that. Right.
Starting point is 01:30:57 Some type of illusion. Right. Yeah. And we decided we had this to the show. It's going to be something incredible, you know, what I show. Because we've always had a high energy type show, you know. Okay. People dancing and a lot of energy and pretty much a nice size production.
Starting point is 01:31:17 So we decided we add this to the show. It would just go over the top, you know. Right. And that's how we were thinking. I was going to say, I'll let my, I'll let the listeners know that, um, especially watching all this as like a nine, 10 year older. Um, no one has utilized slow motion effects. Yeah. Better than the Jackson's.
Starting point is 01:31:39 Like practically every variety show they were ever worn. There's a moment. I mean, I thought you guys could fly because there's always some point in that performance where you guys are either running or airlifting like seven feet up in the air. And I was like, yo, the Jackson can really fly. like that. I didn't realize until later that, you know, that's called post-editing. But yeah, I just thought you guys had magic flying ability. I want to know how you guys, you know, we were talking about, we're talking about, you know, the CBS years. How when you guys left Motown and, you know, how did y'all kind of repair that relationship with Barry Gordy later on? Like, how did he, you know, take y'all leaving and, you know, where's your relationship at with him now? with Barry Gould. We've always been. We've always been good.
Starting point is 01:32:28 You know, business is business. Just a business decision. And we were young. It was a decision that my, my father actually, you know, made. And so we moved forward on it.
Starting point is 01:32:40 But I think one of the, I remember someone telling me, Jackie, you might have, that Barry Gordy said that the worst thing he ever did is let the Jackson Five get away from Motown. Man.
Starting point is 01:32:53 Yeah. And there was no, like, space or room for any discussion of, okay, how many songs do you want to produce or? Or was just, like, I'll call your bluff and see if you guys would, like, did he really think you guys wouldn't leave or anything? I don't know the details, but I think basically he felt that it wasn't broke. Why try to fix something that's working? You know, so basically, I don't think he had the, we have. had never wrote or produced anything publicly. So I think he just felt why changed things.
Starting point is 01:33:31 Too much about it. Yeah. Close your eyes. And you can hear the entire world come alive. 2026 FIFA World Cup is on. And you can stream it all live on TSN radio. From the opening kickoff to the final celebration. Every match.
Starting point is 01:33:56 Every moment. Listen to FIFA World Cup on TSN Radio. Is Canada to the liftoff! Available on I Heart Radio. I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers calling the place soccer, football, it's home. Why do I watch the World Cup?
Starting point is 01:34:22 That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernando Chavarri, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull.
Starting point is 01:34:55 It is an American game. The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that? Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American Football as part of the My Coutura Podcast Network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hotacotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this.
Starting point is 01:35:24 I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression.
Starting point is 01:35:54 I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice. but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us.
Starting point is 01:36:10 We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Perix Holtin, Shakira, Luke, and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited.
Starting point is 01:36:29 On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305 where the group chat comes to life. What a . It's like a way to say like, Oh, my God, my friend, hello, Hello, my brother.
Starting point is 01:36:42 What up? Look, I never have I've ever been with nobody. Except with my kids, my kids, so, yes. C, my amante. Oof,
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Starting point is 01:38:22 or I have radio Apple podcast or whatever you get your podcast I have questions about the Triumph
Starting point is 01:38:31 album because that's where individually you guys really came into your own as far songwriting and
Starting point is 01:38:37 producing is concerned. Side note, Jackie, you've actually written my favorite Jackson's song of all time. Like, your ways is like my all-time favorite song in life. Your ways? No. Oh, God. Yeah. No, no doubt.
Starting point is 01:38:53 I mean, no offense to you other Jackson's, but, you know, that's... Where you go off all your ways? That's the way I go up for give it up. I love. I know Marlon, like, that's you sing and lead with Michael on that one, man. I love... I love that. I love song man and um i thought y'all really was y'all was that intense you y'all trying to go for kind of the yacht rock kind of i guess that you know that kind of sign no it just that's what the song called for so
Starting point is 01:39:18 that's what you get it i love the record man there's magic that happens in the studio when you're working all of a sudden somebody hit you or someone the song needs this bam so you do it you know it's it's uh you know it's just work it's just you know you can't go in and say it's I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that. It doesn't work that way. You know, it's a feel. It's a, you know, that's why I try to tell some of the kids today, and with all these electronics that they use,
Starting point is 01:39:49 and I tell people, how are they supposed to get the sound the way that instrument really sounded if you never heard that instrument? Right, right. And these three albums that were just released a couple of days ago, they have great songs on the songs that never get that a 10. attention, you know what I'm saying? Like your ways. Now they're sticking those out and they did some remix them.
Starting point is 01:40:13 They sound great. Really, I mean, it's amazing. Blues away is one of my favorite. Yeah, they sound great. And that's what you get for being polite and things like that. That's on there too. Yeah, all that stuff on there. It sounds great.
Starting point is 01:40:26 Different mixes on it. How do you guys write the songs together? Well, we started writing the destiny album when Michael was doing the Whiz. That's what I wanted to know. What was the process of doing Destiny while he was doing the Whiz? Did it come out before or after? Well, Destiny was after the Wiz, correct? Right.
Starting point is 01:40:48 Yes. We were getting the studio and just started writing songs. We meet up at noon and we're going to spend four or five hours in the studio and we're going to come up with some stuff and write some songs. And sometimes what we do, Tito had this big camper, you know, with the three stooges on. We would take it out to the beach and sit by the ocean and write lyrics. We would do things like that and go out in different places and go in the camper
Starting point is 01:41:17 and just write lyrics and come back. You know, spend about five or six hours out, you know, the Pacific Ocean at the beach and park the camper sideways and just look at the ways. And we have food in there, sandwiches, and we write lyrics and write songs. Yeah. They go back in the studio and record. Yeah. We all had our own recording spills too at home.
Starting point is 01:41:40 Oh, okay. Gotcha. Man, I must know for all the people of my generation. So this song came out, I guess I was four. The video for Can You Feel It? Hey.
Starting point is 01:41:50 Yeah. Dude, that was the scariest most awesome shit I'd ever see. Can I piggyback on top of that? I was so scared. Can I put up the fuck? See, you were four with, can you feel it? But try explaining to a seven-year-old. this reflection shit for
Starting point is 01:42:06 Blame it on the Boogie which absolutely scared the shit out of me as a kid because Soul Train would come on at one in the morning so watching you guys with this reflective shit and like hear my dad's musician say like oh that's what an acid trip is like
Starting point is 01:42:20 Amir like again I know you guys are one step ahead of technology with everything that y'all have done but what was I mean yeah blame it on the boogie and I got to look at that Can you feel it? No I can't even Dude.
Starting point is 01:42:34 Can you feel like they were big, right? Yeah, I was like, these big niggas just sprinkling stuff. Yeah. I was like, I couldn't get away from it. See, I think by that point, you guys are in your mid-20s, almost 30, so it's different. Sprinkling it, sprinkled. When you're at dust, when you're watching under the age of 10, it's a whole other. It's a different thing.
Starting point is 01:43:00 Yeah. Blaming on the book you used to actually scare me. like just to watch because I couldn't understand this whole reflection thing and that scared me then came Michael with thrilling thanks yeah thrill of that
Starting point is 01:43:15 no we were after scaring us for two years with that shit we know big ass marbles chasing Michael and don't stop to get enough like we were used to it at the time but yeah even when making okay so in doing the blame it on the boogie video Was that just like 15 minutes out of your life? Like, oh, what do we do?
Starting point is 01:43:36 We go over there, we dance. Okay, that's it. Like, and those are just effects we put on there afterwards, you know, you know. How long did that whole process take in, like, just to record? You just did like a couple takes of it and then that was it? Yeah, all the work is really done in the editing room on a lot of those videos.
Starting point is 01:43:54 Ah, so crazy. But, you know, it's done on the green. A lot of stuff is done on a green screen or a chroma key. whatever you want to call it. Back then. Yes. And, I mean, today they have it a lot easier. You can do stuff on your computer and everything is at your fingertips.
Starting point is 01:44:11 But it wasn't that way back in the day. Not at all. Who chose the musician personnel for those records? Because you guys had like the monsters. You had like. Greg Filling Games. Nathan Watts and Greg Filling Gaines. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:44:25 Explain working with Greg Filling Gaines. Those guys basically hung out with it. They were like trends of ours. We hung out. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. We hung out a lot together, all of us.
Starting point is 01:44:35 Greg's been on the show. Ali Brown. David Williams. Ray Parker. We all hung out. We all hang out. We all hung out together. Yeah, Ray Parker played on a lot of Jackson material.
Starting point is 01:44:50 You know, David Williams. Yeah, he's, David is, I feel like an extension of, I mean, he's Billy Preston, as far as I'm concerned, to you guys as Beatles. Like, his guitar sound is like. Yeah. It is. People, even our band members, man, David got some bad guitar leaks. You know, how did he get those?
Starting point is 01:45:09 I said, we told David what we wanted him to play. So we come up with a guitar lick in our head, and we tell him how to play it and how we wanted to sound. And then we go back and what made that David's the guitar playing, they already had bite. but to make but to make it even stronger than what it was
Starting point is 01:45:35 we were double. He was incredible. He was a master of locking it down, locking it. He would lock it. Like, do do do do do do do do do
Starting point is 01:45:44 do do do do do do do. But he just didn't play like he would bite it when he'd like he's like he's pulling the strings. No, it sounds like that. It sounds like that. Okay, David, we got to do another take. Okay, wait a minute.
Starting point is 01:45:58 Let me get a piece of my chicken. and he's like, what? He had some fried chicken on the side. Yeah. He liked to get the grease on his fingers. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I know what I want to ask.
Starting point is 01:46:14 Okay, I cheated. I, I have the stem, so I've heard it. I got to know. Okay, I'm assuming that because of how time has to be edited it so that an entire album side can fit. Right. Jackie, on wondering who, why was Michael's bridge taken out? Was it just to cut, was it just to cut or edit so that you didn't go over or mastering?
Starting point is 01:46:48 Let me explain what you would tell. So the listener is going to understand. Back in. Okay, okay. Sorry. If you had too much low end and you try to master it, it would spread and eat up more of the record. Right. You had to master and get the right sounds
Starting point is 01:47:02 and get everything. It's not that way today, but, you know, and we go to Bernie Gretman mastering. He did all he did all the mastering and a lot of times we'd be in the studio. I mean, how many minutes is it? You know, because
Starting point is 01:47:17 we only can put so many minutes on a record. On the side. Right. Yeah, yeah. And if you got a song, if you got a record like shake your body with a lot of low end, then your minute, you're minutes get less because it's going to eat up more space. And so we will always keep track of the time on how much time that we had to put on there and get in there.
Starting point is 01:47:37 And sometimes we had to make edits. That's right. So, so it'll fit. So my question is, though, I mean, you know, walk right now is a gargantuan time. So on seven minutes. Right. Like, why not edit from Walk right now instead of taking, like, Michael's part. out of wondering who.
Starting point is 01:47:58 I mean, no one misses it because no one's ever heard it. But I thought that was a very curious edit and always wondered, like... Why did they take his part out?
Starting point is 01:48:07 Well, you could have saved 23 minutes, you could have shaved 23 seconds from Walk right now, but instead... Tito knows that answer. Tell him, Tito. No,
Starting point is 01:48:17 Jackie don't know the F. We don't... It just happened. Oh, okay. We weren't feeling it and it was just happening. But on walk right now, we want to capture every sound. It's not walk right now.
Starting point is 01:48:32 Walk right now, ma'all. Or walk right now. Anyway. But we had, the percussionist of Paulino DeCosting used to come in the studio, and he had all his toys around him and all that stuff. Right. So we was trying to get some sound. Oh, a laugh at her, Mollum.
Starting point is 01:48:55 Yes, and he would be laughing, playing. but he can play his rump off. And we want to make sure that we kept all the stuff he did, keep all the stuff. And on walk right now, one of the things we did is we took the tape, we spliced it, and we took the tape, and we played it backwards. Yeah. You know, so we could, you know, computers today, you can do whatever you want to do, but back in those days.
Starting point is 01:49:20 But when you do that, you've got to make sure that it's in sync. You got to be on the downbeat. And it takes, it took a while for us to get that down just the way we wanted so it can come right on the down down. It wasn't something that just happened like that. And we're breathing over the engineer, make sure he splicing it at the right time, right spot, because you don't get a second chance. Right, exactly. You know, and he's nervous and got to razor blade. And, you know, then splice put it all back together.
Starting point is 01:49:54 and we listen to it. It ain't on the downbeat. Okay, we got to come back, reverse it, put it back together. You know, so it took some time. First, you know what we mean, right? You know, right? No, I totally, look, I'm surprised.
Starting point is 01:50:09 Steve's not weighing in. Probably of any album that I've studied, the mixing and mastering of, is probably the Triumph record. I asked, well, yeah, the last couple years of my life have been, no yeah for my 40th I asked back when L.A. Reed was president of Epic
Starting point is 01:50:30 if I could if he could send me all the all the uh the stems so I could study and yeah walk right now had a lot of tracks on it like sure did even that part with DeCosta's solo with all those percussion things like just the the pain stick and you guys did it without pro tools so yeah
Starting point is 01:50:51 and there were no Pro Toes back in the other. Yeah, I know. You guys had to make that shit up. Marlon, by this point also, you were doing producing yourself working on a Betty Wright's record. In addition, your sister, Janet, working on her. Can you talk about your first four ways into outside producing? Well, don't stand another chance is a song that John Barnes and I wrote.
Starting point is 01:51:20 Can you also explain the Sherylene connection with that? Because the love... There's no Shirley Lynn connection. Well, the... I have a track of a Sherilyn song singing the same rhythm track, but just new lyrics of it. I never understood the difference between... I've never heard that. Yeah, it's called love...
Starting point is 01:51:45 Really? Hang on a second. Mom, that's Christ's love. Mom. Quest got stuff you don't even have. You don't have. Question long, mom That's it This joke could have been up on Mars and everything
Starting point is 01:51:56 I actually asked I was confused about it And Jimmy Jim Had told me There's, yeah There's a song that came out on On her instant Not the instant love album
Starting point is 01:52:09 But it's called love Love Rush Love Rush It's on the preppy album So I wanted to know if you Like what was the working relationship with John Barnes as far as putting that song together.
Starting point is 01:52:25 We just came in and John was playing this song and he wanted me to do the lyrics and so I said, yeah, let's get it done, let's do it. And so we worked on it together. John, John Barnes and I
Starting point is 01:52:40 used to hang out all the time. He used to come over to the house all the time. We just started writing stuff and doing stuff. And working with Betty Wright also. What was that process? Betty is a great person. She's a, you know, rest in peace. She just passed away.
Starting point is 01:52:55 Yeah, pass away. Right. But she was, she's a great woman. She's a great singer, too. And on that album, Luther did a lot of background stuff on that album before people knew who Luther Vandross was, you know. And I had a great time in the studio working with Betty. And, you know, she's funny.
Starting point is 01:53:14 She's the vocal coach as well, you know, and, you know, and embedding her every damn body. So when you needed something, she said, don't worry, I got it. We're calling people to do stuff for us. And I called in John Barnes to come in because we had this band that was doing these tracks with us and the tracks kept swimming.
Starting point is 01:53:38 And the drama just couldn't keep time. And so the Len machine, the drum machine had just come out. Right. So I told John to stop at my house and grab my drum-lim machine because, you know, I knew how to program that machine to make drums sound like, to make them sound like real, like real drums. And that's the whole key. Actually, Jackie, for you as well, I know that your solo album came out in 73. Are you even aware that is it him or me is kind of held up in high regard in sort of hip-hop circles as kind of a well, because it has a famous drum break on it that, you know, an obscure album can suddenly become like. No, no, I wasn't aware. No.
Starting point is 01:54:40 Okay. Yeah, I was going to say, like, is it him or me? I wanted to know about that song. Is that to you just like... It's funny you say that because I noticed my boys, I got twin boys here. They're very young. And over the last two weeks, they've been playing that a lot in the house. And I was hearing it.
Starting point is 01:55:00 I was upstairs. I was here. Who's that singing? And it was me. And my boys are like, they're seven years old. You know, twin boys. And they play all of our, all of our music. Right.
Starting point is 01:55:12 But all of a sudden, they was playing. my solo album. I haven't heard that stuff in about 20 years, my solo stuff, maybe longer than that. And it was playing, and I was really, I was really grooving all for me, you know, thanks to them, but just bringing, you know, to my attention. It sounds great, you know. Yeah, a lot of time when I tour, people ask me, ask me, how come you don't do these songs, you know, when I do the meeting, read that's, how can you not doing these songs, you know? for again for hip-hop producers like that album is is is is one of the you know yeah it's one of those things yeah it's one of yeah that just caught on so for hip-hop collectors like is it him or me is
Starting point is 01:55:55 like one of our one of our favorite songs but actually for the both of you with you marlin and with you jackie working on um baby tonight and your album was uh be the one what was What was that process like, like finally working on your solo albums in that time period, like after the victory album and those things like, what was that process like for you working on those records? For me, it was, well, I had a studio in the back of my house, so I get up in pajamas and just go in the studio and spin on a practically almost all night there and just come up with a bunch of stuff. or, you know, in the studio.
Starting point is 01:56:41 And there's a lot of stuff that I have that was never released or, you know, hasn't been out. And some good stuff, too, I think. I was playing some of it the other day. And, you know, you've been doing it all your life. So it's almost like second nature is not something, you know, that you, whoa, whoa. It's like, okay, got to get another project done. You got to do this. I mean, we grew up in the studio.
Starting point is 01:57:09 We, from young kids to now. So when you get in the studio, you pretty much know the ends and out, you know, how to work the boards, how to engineer the stuff, you know, what you're looking for. So it was, it wasn't that difficult, but it's fun, especially when you start working on some stuff for yourself, you know, you try to make it fun. but you want to make sure you know, you try to capture what you're looking for. But it wasn't that difficult. I mean, you pretty much use the same guys that you always use on the Destiny. You call in Greg, Philling Games to play some stuff. David Williams to play some licks for you on some stuff that you want to do.
Starting point is 01:57:51 You know, you get with Jerry Hale or somebody and give him the horn leaks you want to. He go right out the chart to do. Let me go on in on this. And one thing about these artists that we have, these, these, you know, like I said before, these artists, they hung around us as friends. So they knew everything about us. They know exactly what we were looking for. They were friends of ours. We hung out together. We went to dinner together. We did a lot of things. As a matter of fact, they were
Starting point is 01:58:20 our age. I mean, they grew up with us. So everything came to nature. It was easy, you know, quite easy. I was going to say, Marlon, one of the bands that I like is Gritty-Politi. And I know that Fred, Fred Mayor that worked on the album with you.
Starting point is 01:58:39 What was it like, worker with him? Fred, Fred was cool because it was my first time. Fred was one turned me on to the Ad One. I don't know if you're familiar with the Ad One drums. Drum, drum kit. Is it?
Starting point is 01:58:52 Yeah, it's the same kit that Phil Collins used on I can fill it in the air tonight. Oh, yeah, okay. It's that sound. And Fred, Fred turned up and that. As a matter of fact, I bought one.
Starting point is 01:59:07 And we came up and we wrote a lot of stuff together. Yes, I like Screeley-Poletti too. Dane. You'd be doing your stuff, huh? Yeah, yeah. He ain't, dog. Scrutty-Pillian. Like, I know about Jackson's.
Starting point is 01:59:21 He had a sound. He had a sound, Scretty-Penity. Yeah. Pretty-Penity. Critty-Politty. The people are people. I got a whole thing of notes here. So, I got to write that one down, too.
Starting point is 01:59:30 Scriti-Pillity. Scriti-Pillet. We talked about them on another episode. I can't remember who it was. We went kind of deep on them. Yeah, I was going to say, no, we're not just thriller bandwagoners. Like, we're, you know, we know the whole spectrum of the entire work of, you know, all nine of you. Actually, wait a minute, Fonte, we're talking about scary videos.
Starting point is 01:59:53 The one we never mentioned was freaking torture. Oh, yeah, torture. Yeah, I never, yeah, I didn't watch that one. What's a torture? No, I didn't watch that one. With the whip? give the eye in the hand. Why?
Starting point is 02:00:07 Ooh, that was the freaking. Torture is a great song. No, it was a great song. But now just think about the eye in the hand and like, ah, the slime. We're on the victory tour, right? The very beginning of the victory tour. And at the time, I was dating Paul Abdul at the time. I was the one who.
Starting point is 02:00:33 Drop them, Jew. Whoever that is. Right. Who? I was the one who got her in the industry. I mean, when she was a Laker girl, I remember sitting on the floor. Paula Abduke. Did you get her in the nasty video?
Starting point is 02:00:46 Me and Marlon had Seats on the Laker seats on the floor when Magic Johnson was doing their thing at the time. And I'm sitting on the floor. And every day I'm on the floor, walks around every day before the game started. Denzel would come over and say, hello to me. He'd come from here. He comes in late. And I think he just came off his first big movie, his first movie, and he would walk around the place and people really didn't know who he was.
Starting point is 02:01:13 And he would come over and say hello to me. But he's dead today. But anyway, I'm sitting on the floor and all of a sudden, Paula comes over, and another girl comes over and they want an autograph, you know. And all of a sudden I signed an autograph. And then she goes back and sit behind the basket. You know, where the Lanker girl's sitting there, sit behind her. the basket and all of a sudden Sam Watson come over and says, Jackie Paula wants to know
Starting point is 02:01:40 that you want to have coffee after the game. I said, sure. I said, we'll tell her, yeah, I'll meet her after the game and so we went to have some coffee. And we became very good friends, you know, and we dated for like four years, you know. And this thing I know, she's doing Janet videos. I put her with Janet, me and John McLean put her with Janet. She's doing all the Janet stuff. And next thing, we go on the victory tour. And we have, we in New York City. So we had a cattle call, people, maybe 300 people, to be in this video. And she helped me arrange the video for torture video.
Starting point is 02:02:18 And all of a sudden, I said, Paula, I want you to choreograph this video. He said, no, I said, Paula, I believe in you. You can do it. Don't be afraid. You can do this. And she did. That's the first video she choreographed? Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 02:02:33 She put it together, yeah. Slime and everything. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yikes. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:02:44 Oh, okay. And subsequent, well, I assume that she also did the body video as well because that was, no, what was kind of a video of a cattle call of? No, Paula didn't do the body. She didn't do that video. Oh, snap. Okay. No, Michael Peters did that.
Starting point is 02:03:00 Oh, Michael Peter. Ah. Yeah. He was my daddy's friends. The legendary Michael Peters. Yeah. Michael Peters are bad. I don't care what you all said.
Starting point is 02:03:09 Rest in peace, man. Can I ask for a question? You guys were talking about bands. I just wanted to ask about your touring bands because you imagine that like whatever the audition process is must be a, must be crazy to audition for the Jackson's. But I know I was lucky enough like, I don't know, seven years ago to be a production assistant on a Jackson's tour. and you guys have, yeah,
Starting point is 02:03:31 but I went to London with y'all. I went to the Isle of White and I went to a Biloxi. I didn't know this, like you? How we met? Yeah. Man, that's what I'm going to. You were there?
Starting point is 02:03:44 See, I was helping out with Bill Brown and Nick and everybody. Oh, really? Yep, helping you in the dressing rooms. Listen, I was on my hustle when you get fired from radio, you guys said, you know. So, big I love to Bill Brown.
Starting point is 02:03:54 Wait, I didn't know this. Yes. Did y'all know this? No. No. I thought I mentioned this. Tito because I took a whole stuff Yeah, I toured with the Jackson's
Starting point is 02:04:04 One time I worked for the Jackson's And it was just amazing to see that like The band that y'all formed was not only just Some of them were young like your music director Brandon at the time He was like 30 early 30 maybe 30 right But just a dynamic, amazing, stupendous band And you combined it with some OGs But can you just talk about the process now
Starting point is 02:04:23 To put together a Jackson band? Who's playing bass by the way? In your current band Brandon Brown. Brandon is young Brandon that won an Oscar when he was for Three Six Mafia. Oh, I didn't know that.
Starting point is 02:04:38 Yeah. He's killing. Yeah, Brandon's bad boy. He's killing, yes. And your drummer and your drummer and your percussionist? Oh, my God. Yeah. But what is the process now?
Starting point is 02:04:50 But what's the process now? How did you decide who's good enough to? Well, you know, you know, when those guys come in, they come in knowing the music. They come in playing everything. Because they grew up on it. I was saying, we had years to learn it. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 02:05:05 They come in knowing the stuff. You know, when they start playing, I said, oh, my God, these young cats, how do you know this stuff like this? You know, and they grew up playing it. You know, they're about sound. Yeah. You just polish them up a little bit,
Starting point is 02:05:18 but they pretty much know it. And another question says you guys are going to still tour right after COVID because y'all have been touring. Okay, so can you tell people, Your routines, your dance routine seem the exact same. I mean, from the freeze that you talked about, like everything y'all do, your bodies move the exact same. Is it the exact same?
Starting point is 02:05:37 And how do y'all maintain that? Tito gave me some quick, like, this is just what we do answer. But I know Marlon and Jackie, you know, once we, you know, we can be off the stage for the longest time. And once we get together, somehow it just comes together. It comes that way because we've been doing it for so long. We just know each other's moves. We know, matter of fact, we know where Michael would be on stage, you know, in any given time.
Starting point is 02:06:05 We know exactly where he would be on that stage. Even today, if we go on stage, you know. And that's how it worked. We just, it just works that way. How do you make sure your bodies are still able to keep up with these moves on the daily? Sometimes it hurts. You're like shoveling and. You know, when you're on stage, if you try to, if you think of a move and try to,
Starting point is 02:06:27 to do it, it doesn't work. You just got to feel it and you do it. You don't think about it. That's the bottom of the line, you know? Y'all brothers, you'll take vitamins and things or like any kind of- Yeah, we do. We stay in shape and plus, you know,
Starting point is 02:06:39 like our show is like a high-energy show. And it's like working out to me. It's a good workout because I get a break workout. I'll aspire a lot. But only it, you know, plus you get a check at the end of the day. But, you know, it's cool. Let's talk about it. It's like going to the gym.
Starting point is 02:06:57 You know, it's like it's a great workout for us. We love it. But the main key is make sure you get your rest. We do not go out and party at clubs after the show. We never did. Stay up all night. We never did. We go to bed and get our rest so we can be ready to go to the next day.
Starting point is 02:07:12 Yeah. I was curious to know too, like y'all's, you know, because y'all were raised Jehovah's Witness. And I was curious to know how your parents at that time, you know, when y'all were kids and just throughout your career, how much did your faith play in, you know, I guess developing that discipline. that you guys talk about.
Starting point is 02:07:28 And how did your parents say, okay, y'all can, you got your career, but you also have to, I guess, worship in whatever way. How did y'all strike that balance? Well, my mom was different, long as you had some type of spiritual belief or whatever, but they understood that Dollar Bill's got you out of Gary. Let's talk about it. But what I loved about my mom is that she didn't try to force the religion on you. You know, Jehovah Williams
Starting point is 02:07:58 Because when I got married, you know, I became a Catholic going to Catholic church all the time and things I mean. Gotcha. My wife, as long as you had some type of belief in
Starting point is 02:08:09 God in your life and tried to do the right thing, she was comfortable with that. Now, my sister, my sister, Reedy, she's different. She's still... She throw to wash towels at you. And, like,
Starting point is 02:08:26 And Michael was baptized too. Michael got baptized. He was baptized at one time. And he told me the story that he was really serious. He was a Saturday. You know how Joe Wood just knock on the door and talk to West Tower. So Michael knocked on this girl's door. She opened the door and realized it was him.
Starting point is 02:08:45 Come on, man. And she started peeing. He said she started peeing right before his face. She, she stopped. He didn't know what to do. So he's trying to teach her about Jehovah, the God, Jehovah God, right? And she's realizing what she said, but she just stopped. This is a true story, yeah, true story.
Starting point is 02:09:09 Wow. That's stardom. That is our clip for this episode. I can't wait to see it animated. Yeah, we're in the animation of the last. Yeah, he was really serious. Oh, God. Bill Bragg was waiting for him because Bill Braille, you know, he would go with him at times, you know,
Starting point is 02:09:29 stand, standing up a corner and wait for him, you know, and he would for all the people. It was kind of hard for him to do that at the time, but he did it, you know. And so some of the things he really wanted to do, he had to get out of the faith, you know, he had to get out of his own witness to really do his thing where he really wanted to go, you know what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, I'm never going to get that visual up my head. Oh, thank you, Jackie. I appreciate that.
Starting point is 02:09:55 I can ask questions forever. If you guys have done your questions, I got one final question. I got one family question. I want to know throughout your lives and actually now post-Rona how you guys maintain speaking to each other, how you guys maintain, because it's eight, it's eight of y'all. Is there a Jackson family Zoom? Yeah, right. We do this sometime like we're doing right now. And sometimes Tito will come with my house.
Starting point is 02:10:20 I'll be Tito at a park. You know, we meet, you know, his wife and my wife, we meet with the kids. at a park. You know, we do that sometimes. And because it's really serious out there. You know, with this coronavirus and you've got to be real, real careful, especially in California out this way. Yes, that's what I'm making.
Starting point is 02:10:38 It's tough. You got to, I mean, you have to mask up, keep your hands clean. And that's what we do. And so far, so far I'm good. And how is Reby? What's up, man? Reby's doing well. She lives with my mom.
Starting point is 02:10:51 She stayed with my mom. Oh, good. She watches my mom and Reby together. Oh, I love it. They're decorating the house right now, doing it all over again. And that's what my mom is doing. She's so alert. You're talking to my mom.
Starting point is 02:11:03 You think she's around 40 years old. Yo, your mom, how old is she now, Jackie? She'll be 91, May 4th. What a blessing. 90. 90. That's amazing. She's 90 now.
Starting point is 02:11:13 She'd be 91. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. She's doing well. Whip you on your butt. That's right. That's amazing.
Starting point is 02:11:20 I'm happy when she wake up every morning. You know what I'm happy to see her. My last question was, I know that you guys often talk about, like, you guys try to get together as a family and all that. But with the kids until, how hard is it to organize Jackson family reunions? Or can that, does that still happen? Not right now. It's very difficult to do that right now. Right now it's very difficult.
Starting point is 02:11:48 Before, we do it all the time. So, like, 2300 Jackson Street, the video. That was like real life. Yeah. Yes. To be the person that cooks that food. Okay. They got somebody for that to me.
Starting point is 02:12:02 No, you know what? I met your, I met your dessert maker, the woman that bakes all the cakes and I forget her name. He's talking about, Remy? No, he's talking about. Remy? She makes this German chocolate cake that's out of, you know, she's talking about, come on, you know. Oh, Cordia. Cordia.
Starting point is 02:12:22 Cordia. Yeah, Cordia is the good. She, not on the fun she does for Will Smith, too. No, she does for everybody. Like, she came to a Janet show and she snuck. I think at the time, Jan's like, I'm not supposed to have this. And she snuck her like a cake coat, like real covert style, like back alley deal sort of thing. And then she introduced herself to me.
Starting point is 02:12:45 And I was like, oh, you've been making cakes with the Jackson's how long? And then she made one now. She's official, man. She's like. She's great. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.
Starting point is 02:12:55 Yeah. But question, you know, Quest, can I say something? Yeah. Man, I'd like to thank you, man. You've been so supportive in my family. We would go to, we would go to five-star hotels, right? We walk into hotels and on the coffee table
Starting point is 02:13:11 would be this big coffee book, right? And I open it up. It's you in there. You in the book. Really? In a lot of hotels. You were inside the book. And you're sitting there with all.
Starting point is 02:13:23 Oh, Jackson paraphernalia all over the place with the Jackson's albums and I will see this. And that's how I learned that you were, you know. I think. Yeah. I mean, I said, man, I got to thank this guy. You know, he's. The biggest, the biggest picture I saw was in the Hard Break Hotel. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 02:13:42 I'm just kidding. And I see all. Yo, for real, in London, everywhere we go, we see you in these books, man. on the coffee table in London hotels I must get around in the airplane everywhere you know
Starting point is 02:14:03 you guys you guys are you know our first superheroes yeah y'all I'm royalty man like literally y'all music has been a part of my life I'm 42 y'all music has been you've been your music's been a part of my life like my whole life like I don't ever remember a point of my life
Starting point is 02:14:19 not knowing a Jackson song or hearing the music in my house or my mother playing or whatever. And, nah, man, I just give y'all brothers flowers. Love y'all. Like, thank you for real. Step your flowers, Bill Sherman. Thank you.
Starting point is 02:14:33 Except your flowers right now. All given. Take us all the flowers. Your name is a nurse. We're botanist. And I remind people again, when we go outside, go see the Jackson's Live. It is just like it was 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, it's all the same. Yes.
Starting point is 02:14:51 Just the same as being this. Yeah. Gentlemen, thank you very much. for doing this podcast. I really appreciate it. Can I ask one final question, Amir? Hell no. I'm out.
Starting point is 02:15:05 No, just you don't often get a chance to ask Motown legends who their favorite Motown legends are. So I'm just wondering who, like, on a personal level, who your favorite Motown artist or band was if you could just pick one. Well, if I could just pick one. Besides the J5. Marvin Gay. Yeah, Marry.
Starting point is 02:15:23 Tito, for me, it's like the temptations. They're the ones who really, we watched a lot of temptations. And Dina Ross, I hate to say it. I got, I gotta bring her up. I have to. And the Pips. No, no, no.
Starting point is 02:15:40 Yeah, yeah. No, no. Everybody. You just have the whole down squad. Actually, wait. Everybody. Oh, the whole group. Wait.
Starting point is 02:15:52 Steve actually brought up something. that we normally ask, and I didn't ask. Marlon said Stevie. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, Mom. I'm sorry. Of course, cousin Stevie. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:16:01 Steve and Marvin Gay were my thing. I was going to say, well, normally Steve asked this question, but when you guys were in that Encino house, what was the record collection like? Oh. And where is it now? Like, how big was the record collection and who decided what got played? We all had our own record collection, I believe. I mean, I listened. I mean, I got a lot of Quincy Jones albums.
Starting point is 02:16:31 I had Marvin Gay's Distant Lovers album. I had backstabbers, Hellmerving and the Blue Notes. Yeah, eight tracks. Yes, eight tracks. We were doing four tracks and eight tracks. Yeah, Signs still delivered. And we, you know, had the stuff on cassettes. Y'all forgot about cassettes.
Starting point is 02:16:52 Yeah. You know, so You know, Jackie, it's a blessing to see these numbers. I know a lot of Jeffers don't get to see these numbers. Real for real. But, you know, we listen to all kind of music. I mean, country, western music.
Starting point is 02:17:11 I sure did. We sure did. We listened to all kinds. It's to it all. Because great music is great music. I don't care what genre is it. You know, great music. It's just great music.
Starting point is 02:17:22 You know. Amen. Okay. And having said that, I'm Bala Jackson. You're on the Quest Love show, baby. We're all right. Who needs to be signed off the show. On behalf of everyone, this is Questlo Jackson.
Starting point is 02:17:41 No, we'll see you all in the next go-round. This is Quest Love Supreme. Thank you. Yo, what's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLS. And let us know what you think and who should be next to down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast.
Starting point is 02:18:02 All right. Peace. Questlove Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. For more podcasts from Iheart Radio, visit the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the walk up? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful.
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